Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
European Journal of Epidemiology
Published in: European Journal of Epidemiology 8/2008

01-08-2008 | OBESITY

The association between father’s social class and adult obesity is not explained by educational attainment and an unhealthy lifestyle in adulthood

Authors: Alexandros Heraclides, Daniel Witte, Eric J. Brunner

Published in: European Journal of Epidemiology | Issue 8/2008

Login to get access

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the effect of father’s social class on central and general obesity in adulthood. To test the role of educational attainment and adult health behaviours as mediators in this association. Methods: BMI, Waist-hip-ratio, smoking status, alcohol consumption, leisure-time physical activity and dietary intake (semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire) were assessed at phase 5 (1997–1998) of the Whitehall II cohort study. We used retrospective data on educational attainment and father’s social class. Our study sample was 4598 participants (3364 men, 1234 women) aged 44–69, with a valid obesity measure and information on father’s social class and educational attainment. Results: Father’s social class was inversely associated with adult life central (Waist-hip-ratio) and general (BMI) obesity in women but not in men. For example, mean BMI difference between the highest and lowest childhood social class was 2.04 kg/m2 (95% confidence intervals: 0.90; 3.18). These associations remained robust to adjustment for adult life socioeconomic position. Adjusting for educational attainment resulted in a reduction of 10–15% in the difference in mean obesity measures between lowest and highest father’s social class. In our fully adjusted model, adult life health behaviours did not provide further attenuation of the effect of father’s social class on adult obesity. Conclusion: We provide evidence for an independent effect of father’s social class on adult central and general obesity in women, which is not explained by educational attainment and an unhealthy lifestyle in adulthood. Policies aiming at reducing inequalities in obesity should tackle the problem of social inequality early in life.
Literature
1.
Ball K, Crawford D. Socioeconomic status and weight change in adults: a review. Soc Sci Med. 2005;60(9):1987–2010.PubMedCrossRef
2.
Ball K, Mishra GD. Whose socioeconomic status influences a woman’s obesity risk: her mother’s, her father’s, or her own? Int J Epidemiol. 2006;35(1):131–8.PubMedCrossRef
3.
4.
Bartley M. Health inequality: an introduction to theories concepts and methods. Cambridge: Polity Press; 2004.
5.
Beksinska M, Yea L, Brunner EJ. Whitehall II study manual for screening examination 1991–93. London, DEPH; 1995.
6.
Blane D. The life course, the social gradient, and health. In: Marmot M, Wilkinson R, editors. Social determinants of health. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2006. p. 54–77.
7.
Blane D, Harding S, Rosato M. Does social mobility affect the size of the socioeconomic mortality differential?: evidence from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study. J R Stat Soc Ser A Stat Soc. 1999;162(Pt. 1):59–70.PubMedCrossRef
8.
Brown T, Kelly S, Summerbell C. Prevention of obesity: a review of interventions. Obes Rev. 2007;8(Suppl 1):127–30.PubMedCrossRef
9.
Brunner E, Shipley MJ, Blane D, Smith GD, Marmot MG. When does cardiovascular risk start? Past and present socioeconomic circumstances and risk factors in adulthood. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1999;53(12):757–64.PubMed
10.
Brunner EJ, Marmot MG, Nanchahal K, Shipley MJ, Stansfeld SA, Juneja M, et al. Social inequality in coronary risk: central obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Evidence from the Whitehall II study. Diabetologia. 1997;40(11):1341–9.PubMedCrossRef
11.
Brunner EJ, Stallone D, Juneja M, Bingham S, Marmot MG. Dietary assessment in Whitehall II: comparison of 7d diet diary and food-frequency questionnaire and validity against biomarkers. Br J Nutr. 2001;86(3):405–14.PubMedCrossRef
12.
Brunner EJ, Chandola T, Marmot MG. Prospective effect of job strain on general and central obesity in the Whitehall II Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2007;165(7):828–37.PubMedCrossRef
13.
Cameron N, Demerath EW. Critical periods in human growth and their relationship to diseases of aging. Am J Phys Anthropol. 2002;35(Suppl):159–84.PubMedCrossRef
14.
Department of Health. Sensible drinking: the report of an inter-departmental working group; 1995.
15.
Feinstein L, Symons J. Attainment in secondary schools. Oxf Econ Pap. 1999;5:300–21.CrossRef
16.
Gillman MW. Epidemiological challenges in studying the fetal origins of adult chronic disease. Int J Epidemiol. 2002;31(2):294–9.PubMedCrossRef
17.
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. 2000;24(6):725–34.CrossRef
18.
Kivimaki M, Smith GD, Juonala M, Ferrie JE, Keltikangas-Jarvinen L, Elovainio M, et al. Socioeconomic position in childhood and adult cardiovascular risk factors, vascular structure, and function: cardiovascular risk in young Finns study. Heart. 2006;92(4):474–80.PubMedCrossRef
19.
Kivimaki M, Head J, Ferrie JE, Shipley MJ, Brunner E, Vahtera J, et al. Work stress, weight gain and weight loss: evidence for bidirectional effects of job strain on body mass index in the Whitehall II study. Int J Obes. 2006;30(6):982–7.CrossRef
20.
Kuh DJH, Cooper C. Physical activity at 36 years: patterns and childhood predictors in a logitudinal study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1992;46:114–19.PubMed
21.
Lahmann PH, Lissner L, Gullberg B, Berglund G. Sociodemographic factors associated with long term weight gain, current body fatness and central adiposity in Swedish women. Int J Obes. 2000;24(6):685–94.CrossRef
22.
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(3):287–94.PubMed
23.
Langenberg C, Hardy R, Kuh D, Brunner E, Wadsworth M. Central and total obesity in middle aged men and women in relation to lifetime socioeconomic status: evidence from a national birth cohort. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2003;57(10):816–22.PubMedCrossRef
24.
Lawlor DA, Batty GD, Morton SM, Clark H, Macintyre S, Leon DA. Childhood socioeconomic position, educational attainment, and cardiovascular risk factors: the Aberdeen children of the 1950 s cohort study. Am J Public Health. 2005;95(7):1245–51.PubMedCrossRef
25.
Lynch JW, Kaplan GA, Salonen JT. Why do poor people behave poorly? Variation in adult health behaviours and psychosocial characteristics by stages of the socioeconomic lifecourse. Soc Sci Med. 1997;44(6):809–19.PubMedCrossRef
26.
Marmot M. Epidemiological approach to the explanation of social differentiation in mortality: the Whitehall studies. Soz Praventivmed. 1993;38(5):271–9.PubMedCrossRef
27.
28.
Marmot MG, Smith GD, Stansfeld S, Patel C, North F, Head J, et al. Health inequalities among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study. Lancet. 1991;337(8754):1387–93.PubMedCrossRef
29.
Martikainen PT, Marmot MG. Socioeconomic differences in weight gain and determinants and consequences of coronary risk factors. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999;69(4):719–26.PubMed
30.
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):S1–107.PubMed
31.
Pearl M, Braveman P, Abrams B. The relationship of neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics to birthweight among 5 ethnic groups in California. Am J Public Health. 2001;91(11):1808–14.PubMedCrossRef
32.
Power C, Matthews S. Origins of health inequalities in a national population sample. Lancet. 1997;350(9091):1584–9.PubMedCrossRef
33.
Power C, Manor O, Matthews S. Child to adult socioeconomic conditions and obesity in a national cohort. Int J Obes. 2003;27(9):1081–6.CrossRef
34.
Power C, Graham H, Due P, Hallqvist J, Joung I, Kuh D, et al. The contribution of childhood and adult socioeconomic position to adult obesity and smoking behaviour: an international comparison. Int J Epidemiol. 2005;34(2):335–44.PubMedCrossRef
35.
Rennie KL, Hemingway H, Kumari M, Brunner E, Malik M, Marmot M. Effects of moderate and vigorous physical activity on heart rate variability in a British study of civil servants. Am J Epidemiol. 2003;158(2):135–43.PubMedCrossRef
36.
Sproston K, Primatesta P. Health survey for England 2003. London: The Stationery Office; 2004.
37.
Taylor CB, Kraemer H, Bragg D, Miles L, Rule B, Savin M, et al. A new system for long-term recording and processing of heart-rate and physical-activity in outpatients. Circulation. 1980;62(4):288.
38.
Van de Mheen JP, Stronks H, Looman K, Mackenbach CWN. Does childhood socioeconomic status influence adult health through behavioural factors? Int J Epidemiol. 1998;27(3):431–7.PubMedCrossRef
39.
Willett WC, Sampson L, Stampfer MJ, Rosner B, Bain C, Witschi J, Hennekens CH, Speizer FE. Reproducibility and validity of a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Am J Epidemiol. 1985;122(1):51–65.PubMed
40.
World Health Organization. Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. Geneva: WHO; 1998.
Metadata
Title
The association between father’s social class and adult obesity is not explained by educational attainment and an unhealthy lifestyle in adulthood
Authors
Alexandros Heraclides
Daniel Witte
Eric J. Brunner
Publication date
01-08-2008
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
European Journal of Epidemiology / Issue 8/2008
Print ISSN: 0393-2990
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7284
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-008-9245-3

Other articles of this Issue 8/2008

European Journal of Epidemiology 8/2008 Go to the issue

Review Paper

Health-economic burden of obesity in Europe

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

Collaborative pooled analysis of data on C-reactive protein gene variants and coronary disease: judging causality by Mendelian randomisation

Developmental Epidemiology

Maternal smoking in prenatal and early postnatal life and the risk of respiratory tract infections in infancy. The Generation R study

Mortality

Occupational social class, educational level, smoking and body mass index, and cause-specific mortality in men and women: a prospective study in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer and Nutrition in Norfolk (EPIC-Norfolk) cohort

Perinatal Epidemiology

Perinatal factors reported by mothers: do they agree with medical records?

CANCER

Prediction of mesothelioma and lung cancer in a cohort of asbestos exposed workers