CHICAGO — About 38 percent of men living in Norwood Park are clinically obese, compared to just 8 percent of women in the neighborhood, according to a health survey released Thursday.
The national obesity rate is 30 percent for men and 29 percent for women.
The measure was one of several alarming findings in the Sinai Community Health Survey, a study comparing health and safety standards across different parts of the city.
The survey used Norwood Park as a base line to consider disparities among eight other neighborhoods, all on the city's South or West sides. Conditions like asthma and post-traumatic stress disorder were found to be less common in the Northwest Side neighborhood than in areas with lower incomes and sparser insurance coverage.
But when it comes to obesity and high cholesterol, Norwood Park measured squarely "in the middle of the pack," according to epidemiologist Jana Hirschtick, who helped author the report.
"We expected Norwood Park to line up with the national prevalence of [health hazards in] community areas that are predominantly white and wealthier and average, and that's what we saw with diseases like diabetes," Hirschtick said. "But there were a few notable exceptions that we really didn't expect, and among those were obesity and cholesterol levels."
Obesity rates are often higher among people living in so-called "food deserts," where residents don't have easy access to fresh produce and raw ingredients, Hirschtick said. But Norwood Park men registered higher rates than those in West Englewood and South Lawndale, where more than a third of residents are listed as "food insecure."
There's no easy explanation for the 30-point gap between the obesity rates of Norwood Park men and women, Hirschtick said.
But perhaps even stranger is the neighborhood's reported rate of high cholesterol, which dwarfed all other communities studied, with 42 percent of men and 38 percent of women having been diagnosed.
That could be because of Norwood Parkers' relatively unhealthy diets, or it could simply be because more of them have access to good medical care than those in other parts of the city, Hirschtick said.
"In order for high cholesterol to be diagnosed, you have to be getting regular care," she said. "So if we see that more men have high cholesterol than women, we have to ask whether they're just in closer contact with their doctor."
Other findings included in the survey:
• About 1 Norwood Park woman out of every 4 surveyed reported having been a victim of domestic violence, compared to a negligible number of men. The neighborhood ranked fifth out of nine for rates of women reporting violence from an "intimate partner."
The finding is "a good example of something that isn't necessarily related to socioeconomic status," Hirschtick said.
"There are a lot of areas where income is considered protective, but people are experiencing intimate partner violence across all racial and income groups," she added.
• Norwood Park registered by far the highest "social cohesion score," which measures how connected residents feel with their relatives and neighbors, of any neighborhood studied.
A wide body of research shows that "strong connections to family and community can shield people from some poor physical and mental health outcomes," in addition to staving off crime, Hirschtick said.
• A quarter of Norwood Park men surveyed reported having been arrested, compared to a negligible number of women. Ten percent of neighborhood residents reported having been convicted of a crime.
• Twenty-three percent of Norwood Park men reported smoking, compared with just 6 percent of the neighborhood's women. About 19 percent of all American men smoke, and 15 percent of women.
The Sinai Urban Health Institute will host an open forum to discuss the survey's Norwood Park findings at 5:30 p.m. May 22 at the Norwood Park Senior Center, 5801 N. Natoma Ave.
