Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Critical stages in childhood are suspected for adult obesity. We sought to identify (i) whether risk of adult obesity is influenced by childhood socioeconomic conditions in addition to those in adulthood; and (ii) whether conditions in childhood act independently or through their association with education or parental obesity.
DESIGN: Longitudinal, 1958 British birth cohort.
SUBJECTS: A total of 11?405 men and women followed to age 33?y.
MEASUREMENTS: Social class at birth and ages 7, 11, 16, 23 and 33?y. Obesity (BMI⩽30) at age 33?y.
RESULTS: Social class was related to obesity, cross-sectionally at ages 16 (women), 23 and 33?y, but not at younger ages. In analysis of adult obesity (age 33?y) and social class at five life stages, class at age 7?y significantly predicted obesity for women (adjusted odds ratio (OR)=1.31, that is, the odds increased by 31% for each decrease in social class). For men, class at birth and age 23?y predicted adult obesity (adjusted OR=1.19 and 1.16, respectively). Education was also associated with adult obesity, increasing the odds by 30% (men) and 35% (women) for each decrease in qualification level. Adjustment for education level and parental BMI did not abolish the effect on adult obesity of class at age 7?y among women, nor of class at birth among men, while class at age 23?y reduced to borderline significance.
CONCLUSIONS: Cross-sectional associations for social class and obesity can be misleading and obscure effects of childhood socioeconomic conditions. Influences around birth to age 7?y have a long-lasting impact on the risk of adult obesity.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Parsons TJ, Power C, Logan S, Summerbell CD . Childhood predictors of adult obesity: a systematic review. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1999; 23(Suppl 8): S1–S107.
Barker DJP . Mothers, babies and disease in later life. BMJ: Tavistock, London, 1994.
Gunnell DJ, Davey Smith G, Frankel S, Nanchahal K, Braddon FEM, Pemberton J, Peters T . Childhood leg length and adult mortality: follow up of the Carnegie (Boyd Orr) Survey of Diet and Health in Pre-war Britain. J Epidemiol Commun Health 1998; 52: 142–152.
Lynch JW, Kaplan GA, Cohen RD, Kauhanen J, Wilson TW, Smith NL, Salonen JT . Childhood and adult socioeconomic status as predictors of mortality in Finland. Lancet 1994; 343: 524–527.
Prescott-Clarke P, Primatesta P . Health survey for England ′96. The Stationary Office: London 1998.
Sobal J, Stunkard AJ . Socioeconomic status and obesity: a review of the literature. Psychol Bull 1989; 105: 260–275.
Power C, Parsons T . Nutritional and other influences in childhood as predictors of adult obesity. Proc Nutr Soc 2000; 59: 1–6.
Braddon FEM, Rodgers B, Wadsworth MEJ, Davies JMC . Onset of obesity in a 36 year birth cohort study. BMJ 1986; 293: 299–303.
Flegal KM, Harlan WR, Landis JR . Secular trends in body mass index and skinfold thickness with socioeconomic factors in young adult men. Am J Clin Nutr 1988; 48: 544–551.
Kuskowska-Wolk A, Bergstrom R . Trends in body mass index and prevalence of obesity in Swedish men 1980–89. J Epidemiol Commun Health 1993; 47: 103–108.
Manor O, Matthews S, Power C . Comparing measures of health inequality. Soc Sci Med 1997; 45: 761–771.
Ferri E (ed.). Life at 33: the fifth follow-up of the National Child Development Study. National Children's Bureau: London; 1993.
Power C, Moynihan C . Social class and changes in weight-for-height between childhood and early adulthood. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1988;12: 445–453.
Knight I . The heights and weights of young adults in Great Britain. HMSO: London; 1984.
WHO Expert Committee. Physical status: the use and interpretation of anthropometry. WHO Technical Report Series 854 Geneva: WHO,1995.
Wax Y . Collinearity diagnostics for a relative risk regression analysis. Stat Med 1992; 11: 1273–1287.
Whitaker RC, Dietz WH . Role of the prenatal environment in the development of obesity. J Pediatr 1998; 132: 768–776.
Dietz WH . Critical periods in childhood for the development of obesity. Am J Clin Nutr 1994; 59: 955–959.
Laitinen J, Power C, Jarvelin MR . Family social class, maternal body mass index, childhood body mass index, and age at menarche as predictors of adult obesity. Am J Clin Nutr 2001;74: 287–294.
Whitaker RC, Pepe MS, Wright JA, Seidel KD, Dietz WH . Early adiposity rebound and the risk of adult obesity. Pediatrics 1998; 101: E5.
Hardy R, Wadsworth M, Kuh D . The influence of childhood weight and socioeconomic status on change in adult body mass index in a British national birth cohort. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2000; 24: 725–734.
Peckham CS, Stark O, Simonite V, Wolff OH . Prevalence of obesity in British children born in 1946 and 1958. BMJ 1983; 286: 1237–1242.
Duran-Tauleria E, Rona RJ, Chinn S . Factors associated with weight for height and skinfold thickness in British children. J Epidemiol Commun Health 1995;49:466–473.
Prescott-Clarke P, Primatesta P . Health Survey for England: the health of young people ′95–′97. The Stationary Office: London; 1998.
Power C, Matthews S . Origins of health inequalities in a national population sample. Lancet 1997;350: 1584–1589.
British Nutrition Foundation Task Force on Obesity. Obesity: the report of the British Nutrition task force. Blackwell Science: Oxford, 1999.
Williams S, Poulton R . Twins and maternal smoking: ordeals for the fetal origins hypothesis? A cohort study. BMJ 2000; 318: 897–900.
Ong KK, Ahmed ML, Emmett PM, Preece MA, Dunger DB . Association between postnatal catch-up growth and obesity in childhood: prospective cohort study. BMJ 2000; 320: 961–971.
Prentice AM, Jebb SA . Obesity in Britain: gluttony or sloth? BMJ 1995;311: 437–439.
Jebb SA, Prentice AM, Cole TJ . Obesity and social class in women: effects of smoking and physical activity. Proc Nutr Soc 1997; 56: 159A.
Pekkanen J, Uutela A, Valkonen T, Vartiainen E, Tuomilehto J, Puska P . Coronary risk factor levels: differences between educational groups in 1972–87 in eastern Finland. J Epidemiol Commun Health 1995; 49: 144–149.
Seidell JC, Flegal KM . Assessing obesity: classification and epidemiology. Br Med Bull 1997; 53: 238–252.
Acknowledgements
The research was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council under the Health Variations Programme (L128251021). The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research supports C Power as a Fellow. Data acknowledgment: Centre for Longitudinal Studies Institute of Education. National Child Development Study Composite File including selected Perinatal Data and sweeps one to five [computer file]. National Birthday Trust Fund, National Children's Bureau, City University Social Statistics Research Unit [original data producers]. The Data Archive. SN: 3148. Colchester. 1994.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Power, C., Manor, O. & Matthews, S. Child to adult socioeconomic conditions and obesity in a national cohort. Int J Obes 27, 1081–1086 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802323
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802323
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Life-course social disparities in body mass index trajectories across adulthood: cohort study evidence from China health and nutrition survey
BMC Public Health (2023)
-
Socioeconomic inequalities in children’s weight, height and BMI trajectories in Norway
Scientific Reports (2021)
-
Early exposure to social disadvantages and later life body mass index beyond genetic predisposition in three generations of Finnish birth cohorts
BMC Public Health (2020)
-
Socioeconomic inequalities in childhood-to-adulthood BMI tracking in three British birth cohorts
International Journal of Obesity (2020)
-
Early Life Socioeconomic Disparities in Children’s Sleep: The Mediating Role of the Current Home Environment
Journal of Youth and Adolescence (2019)