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A study published online in the journal Public Health suggests that adolescents who live in an urban neighborhood that feels unsafe may be more likely to be overweight, Reuters reports. Based on data collected as part of the 2006 Boston Youth Survey, a team of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed the health behaviors, use of school and community resources and exposure to violence reported by more than 1,100 high school students in Boston. Nearly 12 percent of the students said that they rarely felt safe in their neighborhood and 9 percent reported that they never did. Students who reported rarely or never feeling safe were 1.2 times more likely to be overweight or at risk of being overweight than their peers who reported always or frequently feeling safe. Among those who reported feeling unsafe, 68 percent indicated that gang violence was a serious problem in their neighborhood, with nearly 18 percent reporting that they had witnessed an assault in the past year. By comparison, only 11 percent of students who reported that they always felt safe indicated that gang violence was an issue in their neighborhood. Based on these findings, the study’s authors call for the development of policies and programs to address gang activity and violence as a means to potentially curb obesity among adolescents living in urban environments (Hendry, Reuters, 8/24/09).