A person's socioeconomic, physical, and social environments can affect opportunities for healthy behaviors that might prevent excess weight gain, according to a recent study.

Researchers found that people who moved to more socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods gained additional weight.

"This study identifies exposure to higher-deprivation neighborhoods with moving as a risk factor for weight gain, and suggests a potential source of disparities that can be addressed through focused community-based public health initiatives," researchers said in their study. "More broadly, addressing neighborhood deprivation as a risk factor for obesity and obesity-related cardiovascular disease requires consideration of public policy that can address sources of deprivation."

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the Dallas Heart Survey (DHS), a probability-based sample of over 3,000 Dallas County residents between the ages of 18 and 65 years old. The study began between 2000 and 2002 and a seven-year follow-up was conducted between 2007 and 2009, at which time nearly 2,000 participants completed a detailed survey, anthropometric measures, and laboratory testing. Each participant was linked to Dallas County census block groups, and a Neighborhood Deprivation Index (NDI) was calculated for each block group.

Among people who relocated, 263 participants moved to a higher-NDI neighborhood, 586 to a lower-NDI neighborhood, 47 participants moved but had no NDI change, and 939 participants remained in the same neighborhood. Those who moved to higher-NDI areas gained more weight compared to those who remained at the same NDI or moved to lower NDI (0.64 kg per 1-unit NDI increase).

They also found that among those who moved to higher-NDI neighborhoods, the impact of NDI change on weight gain increased for those who lived in a new neighborhood for more than four years, with a mean additional weight gain per 1-unit NDI increase of 0.85 kg.

The findings are detailed in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.