[Thanks to MCH Alert]

JC Lumeng, et. al. in Neighborhood safety and overweight status in children in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine [160(1):25-31] demonstrate a link between the overweight status of children and their parents’ perceptions of the safety of their neighborhoods and underscore the need for healthcare providers to understand both the neighborhoods and the parental perceptions of their safety when counseling children and families about physical activity and obesity.  It is worthy of note that only 10% of this sample was overweight – a rate well below the national average.  Abstract available at http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/160/1/25.

Editor’s Note: For those of us practicing in urban settings this is hardly news.  Parents, not surprisingly, are more concerned with the immediate and visible dangers in their neighborhoods than they are with the vaguer, long-term risks associated with obesity.  I tried to identify a way to address this issue in the “Pearls” section under “What’s New” on the HOME PAGE in the piece entitled – “Helping Innercity Families - Part I: Children's Peer Networks - A Parent's Role”.  In it I try to help parents get actively involved in creating a peer network for their children, starting with early childhood play groups, that they can feel comfortable and secure about.  Let us know what you think about this and what you have suggested to parents.