Looking for a reason to leave the hood? A new study conducted by Indiana University School of Medicine suggests that living in a deprived urban neighborhood puts diabetics at a significantly higher risk of losing mobility.
Researchers conducting the study discovered about 8 out of 10 African Americans who developed lower body functional limitations were diabetics residing in a neighborhood with low air quality, loud traffic/industrial noise or poorly maintained streets and yards.
“Having diabetes is bad, living under adverse neighborhood conditions is bad, but people with diabetes who live in adverse neighborhood conditions quite remarkably were up to 80 times more likely to develop lower body functional limitations than those having the disease or living under these neighborhood conditions alone,” Dr. Douglas Miller, the study's senior author, said in a statement.
The study, published online in BMC Public Health, also ruled out lack of exercise as being a cause. It was suggested adverse living conditions may have simply caused higher oxidative stress, which exacerbated lower body function problems.
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