Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Oct;28(10):1951-1963.
doi: 10.1002/oby.22970. Epub 2020 Sep 4.

Variation in the Socioeconomic Gradient of Obesity by Ethnicity - England's National Child Measurement Programme

Claudia Strugnell  1 , Shireen Mathrani  2 , Loretta Sollars  3 , Boyd Swinburn  4 , Vicky Copley  2
Affiliations

Variation in the Socioeconomic Gradient of Obesity by Ethnicity - England's National Child Measurement Programme

Claudia Strugnell et al. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the prevalence and risk of overweight/obesity among expanded ethnicity categories within boys and girls in England and the differential influence of socioeconomic position using the 2015/2016 and the 2016/2017 cycles of the National Child Measurement Programme.

Methods: This cross-sectional and descriptive study examined surveillance data of weight status among primary school children in England. Data were pooled across data collection years, representing 1.25 million children in Reception (aged 4-5 years) and 1.1 million children in Year 6 (aged 10-11 years). Ethnicity was classified according to National Health Service definitions, and child residence was used to calculate quintiles of Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index. Measured weight status was classified using the International Obesity Task Force's definition. Logistic regression models were run for each sex and year group.

Results: Within each sex, ethnicity- and socioeconomic-specific differentials in overweight/obesity prevalence were evident. For example, among the five most populous ethnic groups in the most deprived quintile, 26.8% of White British girls in Reception had overweight/obesity compared with 20.7% of girls with Pakistani, 31.2% with Black African, 17.1% with Indian, and 22.2% with any Any Other White (e.g., White European) background.

Conclusions: Ethnicity had an independent influence on overweight/obesity risk after adjustment for socioeconomic position.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Predicted adjusted difference in combined overweight and obesity prevalence between most deprived IDACI quintile and least deprived quintile within ethnic group among (A) Reception girls, (B) Reception boys, (C) Year 6 girls, and (D) Year 6 boys. IDACI, Income Deprivation affecting Children Index based on the Lower‐layer Super Output Area of the child residence. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wang YC, McPherson K, Marsh T, Gortmaker SL, Brown M. Health and economic burden of the projected obesity trends in the USA and the UK. Lancet 2011;378:815‐825. - PubMed
    1. Gortmaker SL, Swinburn BA, Levy D, et al. Changing the future of obesity: science, policy, and action. Lancet 2011;378:838‐847. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Han JC, Lawlor DA, Kimm S. Childhood obesity. Lancet 2010;375:1737‐1748. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Singh AS, Mulder C, Twisk JWR, van Mechelen W, Chinapaw MJM. Tracking of childhood overweight into adulthood: a systematic review of the literature. Obes Rev 2008;9:474‐488. - PubMed
    1. NHS Digital . National Child Measurement Programme ‐ England, 2016/2017. https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nat.... Published October 19, 2017.

Publication types