Journal of Epidemiology
Online ISSN : 1349-9092
Print ISSN : 0917-5040
ISSN-L : 0917-5040
Original Article
Socioeconomic Status and Overweight: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study of Japanese Children and Adolescents
Yuko KachiToshiaki OtsukaTomoyuki Kawada
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2015 Volume 25 Issue 7 Pages 463-469

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Abstract

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) as a determinant of obesity has received scant attention in Japan. This study examined the association between SES and overweight among Japanese children and adolescents.
Methods: Cross-sectional analyses of a representative sample of Japanese children (6–11 years: n = 397) and adolescents (12–18 years: n = 397) were performed, with measured heights and weights from the 2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the 2010 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions. Overweight, including obesity, was defined by International Obesity Task Force cut-offs. SES indicators included household income, equivalent household expenditure, parental educational attainment, and parental occupational class.
Results: Overweight prevalence was 12.3% in children and 9.1% in adolescents. Adolescents living in middle-income households were more likely to be overweight than those living in high-income households (OR 2.26, 95% CI, 1.01–5.67) after adjustment for age, sex, and parental weight status. Similarly, adolescents living in households with low expenditure levels were more likely to be overweight than those living in households with high expenditure levels (OR 3.40, 95% CI, 1.20–9.60). In contrast, no significant association was observed among children.
Conclusions: Our results indicated that low household economic status was associated with being overweight, independent of parental weight status, among Japanese adolescents.

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© 2015 Yuko Kachi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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