IJE Advance Access originally published online on August 22, 2006
International Journal of Epidemiology 2006 35(5):1233-1238; doi:10.1093/ije/dyl160
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© The Author 2006; all rights reserved.
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Effects of socioeconomic change from birth to early adulthood on height and overweight
1 Epidemiologic Research Center, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil
2 Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Canada
* Corresponding author. Epidemiologic Research Center, Federal University of Pelotas, Avenida Duque de Caxias, 250 3o piso, 96030-002 Pelotas, RS, Brazil. E-mail: abarros.epi{at}gmail.com
Background In this work we explored the association of height and overweight with change in socioeconomic position between birth and 19 years of age.
Methods A birth cohort has been followed-up in Pelotas, Brazil, since 1982. All 5914 hospital births were enrolled in the study just after delivery. In 2001, 27% of the cohort subjects were sought, and 1031 (69% of the survivors) were interviewed. Weight and height were obtained for women; men had been examined 6 months earlier. Information on family income in 1982 and 2001 was used to classify the sample into tertiles, the lowest classified as ‘poor’ and the other two as ‘non-poor’. Four trajectories resulted: always poor, never poor, poor at birth/non-poor at 19, and non-poor at birth/poor at 19—which were compared in terms of mean height and prevalence of overweight.
Results Height showed a similar behaviour for men and women, with the never poor presenting the highest mean, followed by those who were non-poor at birth and later became poor. Those who were poor at birth, regardless of later status, were shortest. Overweight was approximately twice as common among men who were never poor in relation to the others. Among women, those who were always poor presented the highest prevalence of overweight. In this case, social determination seems to be complex and may involve aspects of lifestyle and behaviour acting differently for each gender.
Conclusion Socioeconomic trajectories affected both height and overweight, the effect on the latter being different for each gender.
Keywords body height, overweight, socioeconomic status, life course epidemiology, social determinant of health
Accepted 21 June 2006
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