Social factors and obesity: an investigation of the role of health behaviours

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated a behavioural model of the relation between social factors and obesity, in which differences in body mass index (BMI) across sociodemographic groups were hypothesized to be attributable to social group differences in health behaviours affecting energy expenditure (physical activity, diet and alcohol consumption and weight control). METHODS: A total of 8667 adults who participated in the 1995 Australian National Health and Nutrition Surveys provided data on a range of health factors including objectively measured height and weight, health behaviours, and social factors including family status, employment status, housing situation and migration status. RESULTS: Social factors remained significant predictors of BMI after controlling for all health behaviours. Neither social factors alone, nor health behaviours alone, adequately explained the variance in BMI. Gender-specific interactions were found between social factors and individual health behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that social factors moderate the relation between BMI and weight-related behaviours, and that the mechanisms underlying sociodemographic group differences in obesity may vary among men and women. Additional factors are likely to act in conjunction with current health behaviours to explain variation in obesity prevalence across sociodemographic groups.<br /

The Micropolitics of Obesity: Materialism, Markets and Food Sovereignty

This article shifts focus from an individualised and anthropocentric perspective on obesity, and uses a new materialist analysis to explore the assemblages of materialities producing fat and slim bodies. We report data from a study of adults’ accounts of food decision-making and practices, investigating circulations of matter and desires that affect the production, distribution, accumulation and dispersal of fat, and disclose a micropolitics of obesity, which affects bodies in both ‘becoming-fat’ and ‘becoming-slim’ assemblages. These assemblages comprise bodies, food, fat, physical environments, food producers and processing industries, supermarkets and other food retailers and outlets, diet regimens and weight loss clubs, and wider social, cultural and economic formations, along with the thoughts, feelings, ideas and human desires concerning food consumption and obesity. The analysis reveals the significance of the marketisation of food, and discusses whether public health responses to obesity should incorporate a food sovereignty component

Meals in western eating and drinking

Meals are a way of organizing eating into events that have a particular structure and form, and they play an indisputable and even self-evident role within the rhythms and routines of everyday life. In late modern societies, concern about the fate of meals has arisen in both public and academic discourse. It has been suggested that eating is characterized today by individualization, destructuration, and informalization and that communal meals are increasingly being replaced by snacks and solitary eating. This chapter focuses on meals in today’s affluent societies and reflects on why meals are considered important, how meals are defined, and what material elements and social dimensions they contain. It looks at how societal and cultural changes and ecological concerns may influence the organization and future of meals, and it suggests that the content of meals will change in response to the need to diminish the ecological burden of food production and consumption. In particular, plant-based options will at least partly need to replace meat and other animal-based foods. However, there is no reason to expect that the meal as a social institution will break down. Despite the fact that not all meals are characterized by conviviality and companionship, they continue to serve as a significant arena of human sociability and togetherness. Sharing food is, after all, an essential part of being human.Non peer reviewe

Obesity and the Rate of Time Preference: Is there a Connection?

We hypothesize that recent trends in U.S. and worldwide obesity are, in part, related to an increase in the marginal rate of time preference, where time preference refers to the rate at which people are willing to trade current benefit for future benefit. The higher the rate of time preference, the larger is the factor by which individuals discount the future health risks associated with current consumption. Data from the United States, as well as international evidence, suggests that a relationship between these two variables is plausible. We encourage researchers to explore the possible link between obesity and time preference, as important insights are likely to result

Reducing unhealthy weight gain in children through community capacity−building: results of a quasi−experimental intervention program, Be Active Eat Well

Background:Be Active Eat Well (BAEW) was a multifaceted community capacity-building program promoting healthy eating and physical activity for children (aged 4&ndash;12 years) in the Australian town of Colac.Objective:To evaluate the effects of BAEW on reducing children\u27s unhealthy weight gain.Methods:BAEW had a quasi-experimental, longitudinal design with anthropometric and demographic data collected on Colac children in four preschools and six primary schools at baseline (2003, n=1001, response rate: 58%) and follow-up (2006, n=839, follow-up rate: 84%). The comparison sample was a stratified random selection of preschools (n=4) and primary schools (n=12) from the rest of the Barwon South Western region of Victoria, with baseline assessment in 2003&ndash;2004 (n=1183, response rate: 44%) and follow-up in 2006 (n=979, follow-up rate: 83%).Results:Colac children had significantly lower increases in body weight (mean: -0.92 kg, 95% CI: -1.74 to -0.11), waist (-3.14 cm, -5.07 to -1.22), waist/height (-0.02, -0.03 to -0.004), and body mass index z-score (-0.11, -0.21 to -0.01) than comparison children, adjusted for baseline variable, age, height, gender, duration between measurements and clustering by school. In Colac, the anthropometric changes were not related to four indicators of socioeconomic status (SES), whereas in the comparison group 19/20 such analyses showed significantly greater gains in anthropometry in children from lower SES families. Changes in underweight and attempted weight loss were no different between the groups.Conclusions:Building community capacity to promote healthy eating and physical activity appears to be a safe and effective way to reduce unhealthy weight gain in children without increasing health inequalities.<br /

A procedure to correct proxy-reported weight in the National Health Interview Survey, 1976–2002

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) show a larger-than-expected increase in mean BMI between 1996 and 1997. Proxy-reports of height and weight were discontinued as part of the 1997 NHIS redesign, suggesting that the sharp increase between 1996 and 1997 may be artifactual.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We merged NHIS data from 1976–2002 into a single database consisting of approximately 1.7 million adults aged 18 and over. The analysis consisted of two parts: First, we estimated the magnitude of BMI differences by reporting status (i.e., self-reported versus proxy-reported height and weight). Second, we developed a procedure to correct biases in BMI introduced by reporting status.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our analyses confirmed that proxy-reports of weight tended to be biased downward, with the degree of bias varying by race, sex, and other characteristics. We developed a correction procedure to minimize BMI underestimation associated with proxy-reporting, substantially reducing the larger-than-expected increase found in NHIS data between 1996 and 1997.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>It is imperative that researchers who use reported estimates of height and weight think carefully about flaws in their data and how existing correction procedures might fail to account for them. The development of this particular correction procedure represents an important step toward improving the quality of BMI estimates in a widely used source of epidemiologic data.</p

Interaction between Education and Household Wealth on the Risk of Obesity in Women in Egypt

Obesity is a growing problem in lower income countries particularly among women. There are few studies exploring individual socioeconomic status indicators in depth. This study examines the interaction of education and wealth in relation to obesity, hypothesising that education protects against the obesogenic effect of wealth

Changes in body mass index by age, gender, and socio-economic status among a cohort of Norwegian men and women (1990–2001)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Consistent with global trends, the prevalence of obesity is increasing among Norwegian adults. This study aimed to investigate individual trends in BMI (kg/m²) by age, gender, and socio-economic status over an 11-year period.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cohort of 1169 adults (n = 581 men; n = 588 women) self-reported BMI during a general health interview twice administered in two regions in Norway.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Average BMI increased significantly from 23.7 (SD = 3.4) to 25.4 (SD = 3.8), with equivalent increases for both genders. Proportion of obesity (BMI ≥ 30) increased from 4% to 11% for women and 5% to 13% for men. Of those already classified as overweight or obese in 1990, 68% had gained additional weight 10 years later, by an average increase of 2.6 BMI units. The greatest amount of weight gain occurred for the youngest adults (aged 20–29 years). Age-adjusted general linear models revealed that in 1990, women with a lower level of education had a significantly greater BMI than more educated women. In both 1990 and 2001, rural men with the highest level of household income had a greater BMI than rural men earning less income. Weight gain occurred across all education and income brackets, with no differential associations between SES strata and changes in BMI for either gender or region.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Results demonstrated significant yet gender-equivalent increases in BMI over an 11-year period within this cohort of Norwegian adults. Whereas socio-economic status exerted minimal influence on changes in BMI over time, young adulthood appeared to be a critical time period at which accelerated weight gain occurred.</p

A comparison of two methods for estimating odds ratios: Results from the National Health Survey

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens