# Understanding the role of structural racism and intergenerational wealth on obesity outcome

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2022 · $40,353

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Obesity is a preventable cause of early mortality and poses a significant cost burden to public health and
health care systems. Obesity increases risk for several chronic conditions including kidney disease,
hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, stroke, and preventable cancers. Disparities in
obesity by racialized groups are marked, yet only a small body of literature has interrogated the role of
structural racism in the creation of obesity disparities. This research aims to determine the plausible causal role
that one form of structural racism—“redlining”, or the process of categorizing neighborhoods into race-based
credit risk levels instigating discriminatory mortgage lending practices–plays in creating wealth inequality and
obesity disparities over the life course. Using the geographical nature of Home Owners’ Loan Corporation
(HOLC) racialized mortgage credit risk categories (e.g., redlined areas) provides an opportunity for a good
natural experiment to evaluate the plausible causal impacts of the manifestation of neighborhood-level
structural racism and its long-term consequences. Our specific aims are: 1) To identify the impact of
neighborhood-level structural racism and intergenerational wealth accumulation; 2) To test the effect of
structural racism on obesity over multiple generations; and 3) To test the mediating role of intergenerational
wealth on the causal relationship between structural racism and obesity outcomes in adults. Our overarching
hypothesis is that federally supported racialized “redlining” policies effectively prohibited Black Americans from
building wealth in their homes, leading to decades of divestment in predominately Black neighborhoods and
contributing to the development of obesogenic environments, and ultimately obesity risk over the life course.
We leverage the longitudinal nature of the Panel Study for Income Dynamics (PSID) to implement a life course
approach for assessing generational wealth inequality and obesity disparities and use a quasi-experimental
design which circumvents the use of random assignment of the exposure variable. Aims 1 and 2 will use the
actual boundaries of the “redlined” neighborhoods to conduct a geographical regression discontinuity (GRD)
which addresses endogeneity of neighborhood characteristics by specifying a spatial or geographical boundary
split with a marked threshold. Aim 3 will investigate the indirect effects of each generation of wealth
accumulation on neighborhood-level structural racism and body mass index (BMI) outcomes. Results will
contribute to understanding why health disparities exist for racialized minority communities by identifying how
specific pathways operate through structural racism to create racialized inequities in obesity outcomes.
Implications from this research will help identify consequences of structural racism and can help to lead to full
accounting of the impacts, as well as identify corrective econo...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10458274
- **Project number:** 1F31MD017449-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Shanise Erika Owens
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $40,353
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10458274

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10458274, Understanding the role of structural racism and intergenerational wealth on obesity outcome (1F31MD017449-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10458274. Licensed CC0.

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