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Assessing social differences in overweight among 15- to 16-year-old ethnic Norwegians from Oslo by register data and adolescent self-reported measures of socio-economic status

Abstract

Objective:

To determine to what extent self-reported and objective data on socio-economic status (SES) are associated with overweight/obesity among 15 to 16-year-old ethnic Norwegians.

Design:

A cross-sectional questionnaire study on health and health-related behaviors.

Subjects:

All school children aged 15–16 years old in 2000 and 2001 in Oslo, Norway. Response rate 88% (n=7343). This article is based on the data from the 5498 ethnic Norwegians.

Measurements:

Self-reported height and weight were used to measure overweight (including obesity) as defined by the International Obesity Task Force cutoffs at the nearest half-year intervals. SES was determined by register data from Statistics Norway on residential area, parental education and income and by adolescent self-reported measures on parental occupation and adolescents' educational plans.

Results:

The prevalence of overweight/obesity was low, but higher among boys (11%) than among girls (6%). Parental education (four levels) showed the clearest inverse gradients with overweight/obesity (boys: 18, 13, 10 and 7%; girls: 11, 6, 6 and 4%). Parental education remained significantly associated with overweight/obesity when adding occupation and income to the model for the boys, whereas there were no significant associations in the final model for the girls. Overweight/obesity was associated with a lower odds ratio of planning for higher education (college/university) among boys only.

Conclusion:

For the boys, parental education was most strongly associated with overweight/obesity, and the association between overweight/obesity and educational plans appears to imply downward social mobility. The relationships between the various SES measures and overweight/obesity appeared more interrelated for the girls.

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Acknowledgements

The Oslo Health Study was funded by the NIPH, University of Oslo and the Municipality of Oslo. The National Health Screening Services (SHUS) (now part of the NIPH) conducted the data collection. The post-doctoral fellowship for Dr Lien is funded by a grant from the Norwegian Research Council.

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Lien, N., Kumar, B., Holmboe-Ottesen, G. et al. Assessing social differences in overweight among 15- to 16-year-old ethnic Norwegians from Oslo by register data and adolescent self-reported measures of socio-economic status. Int J Obes 31, 30–38 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803415

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