School Environment Mediates Health Disparities Among Fifth-Graders

Although racial and ethnic health disparities among adolescents and adults are well known, less is known about disparities among preadolescents. Researchers used data from computer-assisted interviews on 16 health-related measures in 5119 randomly selected public school fifth-graders and their parents in three U.S. urban cities.

Significant disparities in all 16 health measures were found between black and white children and in 12 of the 16 measures between Latino and white children. In unadjusted analysis, both Latinos and blacks reported lower rates of seat belt and bike helmet use and higher rates of witnessing violence in the past year; perpetrating nonphysical aggression; and experiencing discrimination, obesity, and self-perceived poor…