Abstract
Objective: To investigate the association between socioeconomic position, measured at three stages of the life course, and obesity in the elderly.
Design: Cross-sectional study carried out in 2000–2001.
Subjects: In total, 4009 subjects aged 60 y and older, representative of the Spanish noninstitutionalised population.
Research Methods and Procedures: We estimated body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) by social class in childhood, by educational level and by adult social class, as well as the association between these two obesity measures and each socioeconomic characteristic after adjusting for the other two.
Results: In men, no relation was found between the two measures of obesity studied and socioeconomic circumstances throughout the life course. Nor was any relation found in women between social class in childhood and the two measures of obesity after adjusting for the other two socioeconomic variables. In contrast, BMI and WC in women showed a statistically significant inverse gradient with educational level and with adult social class after adjusting for age and the rest of the socioeconomic variables.
Conclusions: In general, these results support the small amount of existing evidence on the association between obesity and abdominal obesity and socioeconomic position by educational level and adult social class. The results for social class in childhood do not support the existing evidence, and suggest that this association may depend on specific historic and cultural circumstances.
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
Buy this article
Purchase on Springer Link
Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alonso LE & Conde F (1994): Historia del consumo en España. Una aproximación a sus orígenes y primer desarrollo, pp 115–222. Madrid: Debate.
Ball K, Mishra G & Crawford D (2002): Which aspects of socioeconomic status are related to obesity among men and women? Int. J. Obes. Relat. Metab. Disord. 26, 559–565.
Barney LR & Blane DB (1997): Collecting retrospective data: accuracy of recall after 50 years judged against historical records. Soc. Sci. Med. 45, 1519–1525.
Blane D, Hart CL, Davey Smith G, Gillis CR, Hole DJ & Hawthorne VM (1996a): Association of cardiovascular disease risk factors with socioeconomic position during childhood and during adulthood. BMJ 313, 1434–1438.
Blane D, White I & Morris J (1996b): Education, social circumstances and mortality. In Health and Social Organization, eds D Brunner, E Brunner & R Wilkinson, pp 171–187. London: Routledge.
Braddon FE, Rodgers B, Wadsworth ME & Davies J (1986): Onset of obesity in a 36 year birth cohort study. BMJ 293, 299–303.
Breeze E, Maidment A, Bennett N, Flatley J & Carey S (1994): Health Survey for England 1992, pp 75–82. London: HMSO.
Brunner E, Shipley MJ, Blane D, Davey Smith G & Marmot MG (1999): When does cardiovascular risk start? Past and present socioeconomic circumstances and risk factors in adulthood. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 53, 757–764.
Brunner EJ, Marmot MG, Nanchahal K, Shipley MJ, Stansfeld SA, Juneja M & Alberti KGMM (1997): Social inequality in coronary risk: central obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Evidence from the Whitehall II study. Diabetologia 40, 1341–1349.
Croft JB, Strogatz DS, James SA, Keenan NL, Ammerman AS, Malarcher AM & Haines PS (1992): Socioeconomic and behavioral correlates of body mass index in black adults: the Pitt County Study. Am. J. Public Health 82, 821–826.
Davey Smith G & Hart C (1998): Socioeconomic factors and determinants of mortality (letter). JAMA 280, 1744–1745.
Fanelli Kuczmarski M, Kuczmarski RJ & Najjar M (2000): Descriptive anthropometric reference data for older Americans. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 100, 59–66.
Goldblatt PB, Moore ME & Stunkard AJ (1965): Social factors in obesity. JAMA 192, 1039–1042.
González CA, Pera G, Agudo A, Amiano P, Barricarte A, Beguiristain JM, Chirlaque MD, Dorronsoro M, Martinez C, Navarro C, Quiros JR, Rodriguez M, Tormo MJ (2000): Factores asociados a la acumulación de grasa abdominal estimada mediante índices antropométricos. Med. Clin. (Barcelona) 114, 401–406.
Goodman-Gruen D & Barrett-Connor E (1996): Sex differences in measures of body fat and body fat distribution in the elderly. Am. J. Epidemiol. 143, 898–906.
Gortmaker SL, Must A, Perrin JM, Sobol AM & Dietz WM (1993): Social and economic consequences of overweight in adolescence and young adulthood. N. Engl. J. Med. 329, 1008–1012.
Gutiérrez-Fisac JL, Regidor E & Rodríguez C (1996): Trends in obesity differences by educational level in Spain. J. Clin. Epidemiol. 49, 351–354.
Gutiérrez-Fisac JL, Regidor E, Banegas JR & Rodríguez Artalejo F (2002): The size of obesity differences associated with educational level in Spain, 1987 and 1995/97. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 56, 457–460.
Hardy R, Wadsworth M & Kuh D (2000): 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. 24, 725–734.
Helmert U, Mielck A & Classen E (1992): Social inequities in cardiovascular disease risk factors in East and West Germany. Soc. Sci. Med. 35, 1283–1292.
Instituto Nacional de Estadística. Encuesta Sociodemográfica 1991 (1995). Tomo I. Principales Resultados. Madrid: INE.
Kawachi I & Marmot MG (1998): Commentary: what can we learn from studies of occupational class and cardiovascular disease? Am. J. Epidemiol. 148, 160–163.
Lahmann PH, Lissner L, Gullberg B & Berlund G (2000): Sociodemographic factors associated with long-term weight gain, current body fatness and central adiposity in Swedish women. Int. J. Obes. Relat. Metab. Disord. 24, 685–694.
Lawlor DA, Ebrahim S & Davey Smith G (2002): Socioeconomic position in childhood and adulthood and insulin resistance: cross sectional survey using data from British women's heart and health study. BMJ 325, 805–809.
Lostao L, Regidor E, Aíach P & Domínguez V (2001): Social inequalities in ischaemic heart and cerebrovascular disease mortality: Spain and France 1980–82 and 1988–90. Soc. Sci. Med. 52, 1879–1887.
Luepker RV, Rosamond WD, Murphy R, Sprafka JM, Folsom AR, McGovern PG & Blackburn H (1993): Socioeconomic status and coronary heart disease risk factor trends. The Minnesota Heart Survey. Circulation 88, 2172–2179.
Lynch J & Kaplan G (2000): Socioeconomic position. In Social Epidemiology, eds LF Berkman & I Kawashi, pp 13–35. New York: Oxford University Press.
McMurray RG, Harrell JS, Deng S, Bradley CB, Cox LM & Bangdiwala SI (2000): The influence of physical activity, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity on the weight status of adolescents. Obes. Res. 8, 130–139.
Peckham C, Stark O, Simonite V & Wolff OH (1993): Prevalence of obesity in British children born in 1946 and 1958. BMJ 286, 1237–1242.
Power C & Matthews S (1997): Origins of health inequalities in a national population sample. Lancet 350, 1584–1589.
Power C, Hertzman C, Matthews S & Manor O (1997): Social differences in health: life-cycle effects between ages 23 and 33 in the 1958 British Birth Cohort. Am. J. Public Health 87, 1399–1503.
Regidor E & Gutiérrez-Fisac JL (1999): Health Indicators. Fourth Evaluation in Spain of European Regional Program Health for All, pp 225–252. Madrid: Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo.
Regidor E, Gutiérrez-Fisac JL, Calle ME, Navarro P & Domínguez V (2001): Trends in cigarette smoking in Spain by social class. Prev. Med. 33, 241–248.
Regidor E, Gutiérrez-Fisac JL, Domínguez V, Calle ME & Navarro P (2002a): Comparing socioeconomic inequalities in perceived health in Spain: 1987 and 1995/97. Soc. Sci. Med. 54, 1323–1332.
Regidor E, Gutiérrez-Fisac JL, Calle ME, Domínguez V & Navarro P (2002b): Infant mortality at time of birth and cause specific adult mortality among residents of the Region of Madrid born elsewhere in Spain. Int. J. Epidemiol. 31, 368–374.
Regidor E, Domínguez V, Calle ME & Navarro P (2003): Circunstancias socioeconómicas a lo largo de la vida y mortalidad prematura por enfermedades crónicas. Med. Clin. (Barcelona) 120, 201–206.
Rodríguez Artalejo F, Banegas JR, Graciani MA, Hernández Vecino R & Rey Calero J (1996): El consumo de alimentos y nutrientes en España en el periodo 1940–1988. Análisis de su consistencia con la dieta mediterránea. Med. Clin. (Barcelona) 106, 161–168.
Rosmond R & Björntorp P (2000): Occupational status, cortisol secretory pattern and visceral obesity in middle-aged men. Obes. Res. 8, 445–450.
Ross CE & Wu CH (1995): The links between educational and health. Am. Soc. Rev. 60, 719–745.
Sargent JD & Blanchflower DG (1994): Obesity and stature in adolescence and earnings in young adulthood. Arch. Pediatr. Adolesc. Med. 148, 681–687.
Shea S, Stein AD, Basch CE, Lantingue R, Maylahn C, Strogatz DS & Novick L (1991): Independent associations of educational attainment and ethnicity with behavioral risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Am. J. Epidemiol. 134, 567–582.
Sobal J & Stunkard AJ (1989): Socioeconomic status and obesity: a review of the literature. Psychol. Bull. 105, 260–275.
Stevens J, Cai J, Pamuk ER, Williamson DF, Thun MJ & Wood HL (1998): The effect of age on the association between body-mass index and mortality. N. Engl. J. Med. 338, 1–7.
The Expert Subcommittee on the use and interpretation of anthropometry in the elderly (1998): Uses and interpretation of anthropometry in the elderly for the assessment of physical status. Report to the Nutrition Unit of the World Health Organization. J. Nutr. Health Aging 2, 5–17.
Van Lenthe FJ, Droomers M, Schrijvers CTM & Mackenbach JP (2000): Socio-demographic variables and 6 year change in body mass index: longitudinal results from the GLOBE study. Int. J. Obes. Relat. Metab. Disord. 24, 1077–1084.
Wamala SP, Wolk A & Orth-Gomér K (1997): Determinants of obesity in relation to socioeconomic status among middle-aged Swedish Women. Prev. Med. 26, 734–744.
Wardle J, Waller J & Jarvis MJ (2002): Sex differences in the association of socioeconomic status with obesity. Am. J. Public Health 92, 1229–1304.
WHO (1995a): Physical status: the use and interpretation of anthropometry. Report of a WHO Expert Committee. Technical Report Series, No. 854. Geneva: WHO.
WHO (1995b): Physical status: The use and interpretation of anthropometry. Report of a WHO Expert Committee. Technical Report Series, No. 854. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Acknowledgements
This study was partially funded by Bristol Myers Squibb, by Grant No. 08.4/0011/2000 from the Comunidad de Madrid, and by Grant No. 01/0355 from the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Regidor, E., Gutiérrez-Fisac, J., Banegas, J. et al. Obesity and socioeconomic position measured at three stages of the life course in the elderly. Eur J Clin Nutr 58, 488–494 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601835
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601835
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Unconditional quantile regressions to determine the social gradient of obesity in Spain 1993–2014
International Journal for Equity in Health (2016)
-
Gender, socio-economic status and metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and old adults
BMC Public Health (2008)
-
Influence of childhood socioeconomic circumstances, height, and obesity on pulse pressure and systolic and diastolic blood pressure in older people
Journal of Human Hypertension (2006)
-
Gender-Specific Disparities in Obesity
Journal of Community Health (2006)