Socioeconomic position in childhood and adulthood and associations with weight status

People who are less well-off in terms of income, education or job positions are more likely to be overweight or obese, at least in industrialized countries. Such socioeconomic inequalities in body weight have been demonstrated in numerous cross-sectional studies. With Katrina Giskes from the School of Public Health/Centre for Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (http://www.hlth.qut.edu.au/) as first author we have now investigated such inequalities from a life course and longitudinal perspective. We examined the association between child- and adulthood socioeconomic position (SEP) and body mass index BMI and overweight/obesity in 1991 and changes in BMI and the prevalence of overweight and obesity between 1991 and 2004. The findings indicated that among women, childhood SEP was more important for body weight than SEP in adulthood: at baseline, women from disadvantaged backgrounds in childhood had a higher BMI and were more likely to be overweight or obese, and they gained significantly more weight between baseline and follow-up. In contrast, adult SEP had a greater impact than childhood circumstances on men's body weight: those from disadvantaged households had a higher mean BMI and were more likely to be overweight or obese at baseline, and they gained significantly more weight between 1991 and 2004. The findings suggest that exposure to disadvantaged circumstances at critically important periods of the life course is associated with body weight and weight gain in adulthood. Importantly, these etiologically relevant periods differ for men and women, suggesting gender-specific pathways to socioeconomic inequalities in body weight in adulthood.

See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18356832?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum