When tribes build casinos, obesity falls in youth

After American Indians built casinos on California tribal lands, their incomes rose and their children's obesity rates fell, according to a new study.

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.

Socioeconomic Influences on Child HealthBuilding New Ladders of Social Opportunity Health is a universal aspiration and basic human need. An increasing body of research shows that life success and long-term well-being are results of the conditions in which children live, grow, learn, and play, and that a basic scaffolding of health, education, and family support is needed to achieve optimal lifelong well-being. However, providing this ladder of support for low-income minority children in increasingly income-segregated US communities can be elusive. Growing up in a family that is struggling economically in a neighborhood that is plagued with failed schools, crime, disorder, and violence creates cumulative health risks and functional deficits that contribute to higher rates of many health conditions, including asthma, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and obesity. Without a coherent and functional system of high-quality services such as child care, early education, family support, health care, and mental health services, risks go unaddressed, preventable health problems develop, and disabling conditions compound over time, becoming more pronounced as sick and impaired teens become chronically ill and disabled adults.