A U.S. study says poor people are more likely to be overweight than the rich because they don't have access to recreational facilities.
In their study of some 20,000 U.S. teenagers, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explored whether resources available for physical activity were distributed relatively equally across all segments of the population.
"We expected to find that private, fee facilities would be more common in more affluent areas, but the extent and magnitude of the lack of access in poorer communities was very surprising," said Dr. Penny Gordon-Larsen, assistant professor of nutrition. "Even the types of facilities we think of as most equitably allocated, like YMCAs, public parks and youth organizations, were significantly less common in poorer areas."
The findings appear in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics.
© Copyright 2006 by United Press International
