A study just out links high rates of diabetes to African Americans who lived in substandard housing. Sigh. Doesn't that seem rather obvious? Does it really require a big study to confirm it?? Well, anyway, here's the scoop: researchers collected data on 998 African American men and women born in St. Louis between 1936 and 1950. They looked at all the risk factors for those individuals - factors that could contribute to ill health. Examples of risk factors include access to medical care and quality of neighborhoods (including such things as air quality, condition of yards and sidewalks, and proximity to industrial sites and traffic noise.)The conclusion? Those whose housing conditions were ranked as only fair or poor were at increased risk for type 2 diabetes. Interestingly, even after adjusting for other social or environmental factors, those in substandard housing had double the risk for diabetes.
Confused as to why? So are the researchers behind the study. Says lead researcher Dr. Mario Schootman of the Washington University School of Medicine, "So far, we can't explain why that is. It could potentially be related to lead. Lead is associated with the development of diabetes, and we know that in some poorer housing conditions, there's likely to be lead exposure. But it also could be related to other, unknown, environmental contaminants."
Just yesterday I shelled out for a quality water filter. My concern is that there could be lead in the plumbing of my old house. Reading this, I'm so glad I did. Who knows what junk is floating around in our air and water these days. Sad, huh?
Results for Dr. Schootman's study have been published in the American Journal of Epidemiology (August, 2007).
UPDATE 8/21: One reader commented in no uncertain terms that this is just a bunch of PC overkill. Read carefully. "After adjusting for other...factors, those in substandard housing had double the risk for diabetes." So you have two obese guys who eat Fritos for dinner and fried chicken for breakfast. They both drink soda at every meal. The one who lives in substandard housing is statistically more likely to develop diabetes than the guy who lives in fair or poor housing.
