|
 The study's authors sought to highlight the merits
of investing in communities to prevent disease. They found that an
infusion of resources was linked to a reduction in poverty and youth
health risks.
"The casino is serving as a proxy," Dr. Neal Halfon told Reuters
Health. "If we had some kind of big syringe, and we inject money
into a community, it does change the odds. Here it lowered obesity."
Halfon directs the Center for Healthier Children, Families and
Communities at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was not
involved in the current study but wrote an accompanying editorial in
the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"An enormous loss of human potential results from unsafe, uncertain,
stressful childhood environments," Halfon writes in his editorial.
"A casino in every neighborhood is not the answer, but increasing
family income and removing other pressures that reduce the capacity
of families to invest in their children should be part of the
solution."
American Indian children have disproportionately high rates of
obesity, the study says. An estimated 48 percent of them are
overweight or obese, and they are one and a half times more likely
to be overweight than other American youth, lead author Jessica C.
Jones-Smith told Reuters Health.
Jones-Smith, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health in Baltimore, and her team used data from the U.S. Census and
California physical fitness programs to measure the impact an influx
of funds into a community has on its youth.
They examined the heights and weights of American Indian children
ages seven to 18 from California public school districts in areas
with tribal lands. Then they tracked what happened when some of
those communities built or expanded casinos between 2001 and 2012.
Of the 117 public school districts included in the study, 57 either
opened or expanded casinos. Of the remaining districts, 24 had
existing casinos that did not expand and 36 had none.
Districts that opened or expanded casinos added an average of 13
slot machines per resident. Such a change was associated with a drop
in the proportion of local youth who were overweight or obese by 2.5
percent, Jones-Smith said.
The researchers counted students as overweight if their weight was
in the 85th percentile or above on the pediatric growth chart.
"We weren't trying to weigh in on whether casinos should be held up
as an example of economic development," Jones-Smith said. "Instead,
we were trying to isolate the impact of economic resources on kids'
health."
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Although why obesity rates fell in communities that added or
expanded casinos remains unknown, Jones-Smith has some ideas.
Her study suggested an addition of 13 slot machines per capita in
a community was linked to an increase in annual income of $7,000 for
each resident. The increased income might allow families to purchase
healthier, less fattening food, she said.
Federal law mandates that casinos return profits to their
communities or make charitable donations, Jones-Smith said. As a
result, she said tribes often build recreation centers, parks and
playing fields — places where youth participate in sports and other
weight-reducing activities.
Halfon said this study and others "demonstrating the health benefits
of alleviating poverty are particularly important given the growing
income inequalities, persistently high rates of childhood poverty
and stagnant wage growth in families with young children."
Almost half of American children grow up in poor or "near poor"
families, he writes in his editorial.
UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, ranked the U.S. 26th out
of 29 developed countries on children's overall well-being last
year, Halfon noted.
"All we have to do is look at other nations and see what they do to
raise the children out of poverty," he said.
"Many of these countries are spending the same overall on health and
social programs. They spend it earlier in the lifespan so they're
launching their children into a healthy trajectory, rather than
waiting until their adults are burdened with lots of chronic health
problems and having to pay for rescue care."
 ___
Sources: http://bit.ly/1l1IYKZ
and http://bit.ly/1f8hU
Journal of
the American Medical Association, online March 4, 2014.
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