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. 2014 Jan 28;111(4):1338-42.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1321355110. Epub 2014 Jan 13.

Increasing socioeconomic disparities in adolescent obesity

Carl B Frederick  1 , Kaisa Snellman, Robert D Putnam
Affiliations

Increasing socioeconomic disparities in adolescent obesity

Carl B Frederick et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Recent reports suggest that the rapid growth in youth obesity seen in the 1980s and 1990s has plateaued. We examine changes in obesity among US adolescents aged 12-17 y by socioeconomic background using data from two nationally representative health surveys, the 1988-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys and the 2003-2011 National Survey of Children's Health. Although the overall obesity prevalence stabilized, this trend masks a growing socioeconomic gradient: The prevalence of obesity among high-socioeconomic status adolescents has decreased in recent years, whereas the prevalence of obesity among their low-socioeconomic status peers has continued to increase. Additional analyses suggest that socioeconomic differences in the levels of physical activity, as well as differences in calorie intake, may have contributed to the growing obesity gradient.

Keywords: health disparities; overweight; public policy; social class; social inequality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Trends in obesity among adolescents aged 12–17 y by parental education in the NHANES III (1999–2010) (A) and the NSCH (2003, 2007, and 2011). (B) Obesity is defined as being at or above the sex- and age-specific 95th percentile of the 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) growth charts. Error bars indicate 95% CIs. BA, bachelor's degree; HS, high school.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Visualizing uncertainty in the obesity gap among adolescents aged 12–17 y in the NHANES III (1999–2010). The narrow lines are based on 1,000 simulated trends, and the dark lines are the means of the simulated trend estimates.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Trends in daily caloric intake among adolescents aged 12–17 y by parental education in the NHANES III (1999–2010). Error bars indicate 95% CIs.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Trends in adolescent physical activity by parental education in the NHANES (1999–2010) (A) and the NSCH (2003, 2007, and 2011) (B) In the NHANES, physical activity is defined as at least 10 min in the past 30 d. In the NSCH, it is defined as at least 20 min in the past 7 d. Error bars indicate 95% CIs.
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