@article{Goisis_41_23,
author = {Goisis, Alice and Sigle, Wendy and Martinson, Melissa},
title={{When richer doesn’t mean thinner: Ethnicity, socioeconomic position, and the risk of child obesity in the United Kingdom}},
journal = {Demographic Research},
volume = {41},
number = {23},
pages = {649--678},
doi = {10.4054/DemRes.2019.41.23},
year = {2019},
abstract = {Background: A range of studies report a robust association between family socioeconomic position and the prevalence of child overweight/obesity. On average, children from poorer backgrounds are more likely to be overweight/obese than children from more advantaged families. However, a small number of US studies have shown that, for ethnic minority children, the association is either nonexistent or reversed. 

Objective: We test if the link between socioeconomic position and child overweight/obesity at age 7 is heterogeneous in the United Kingdom where rates of obesity are particularly high for some groups of ethnic minority children. 

Methods: We use nationally representative data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study as well as descriptive analyses and logistic regression models. 

Results: Poorer White children are at higher risk of overweight/obesity than higher income White children. However, socioeconomic disparities are reversed for Black African/Caribbean children and nonexistent for children of Indian and Pakistani/Bangladeshi origin. Moreover, the health behaviours that explain socioeconomic disparities in child overweight/obesity for the White group appear to be irrelevant in explaining differences by socioeconomic position for the Black Caribbean and African groups. 

Conclusions: We should be careful in assuming that higher socioeconomic position is protective against child overweight/obesity for all groups of the population. 

Contribution: This study shows for the first time important variation by ethnicity in the link between socioeconomic position and child overweight/obesity – and in the underlying mechanisms linking them – in the United Kingdom. },
URL = {https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol41/23/},
eprint = {https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol41/23/41-23.pdf}
}