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Publication

Income-related inequalities in adiposity in the United Kingdom: evidence from multiple adiposity measures

Publication type

Conference Paper

Series

Understanding Society Scientific Conference 2015, 21-23 July 2015, University of Essex, Colchester, UK

Authors

Publication date

July 23, 2015

Abstract

Obesity is a key public health problem; rapidly increasing in prevalence and being a significant predictor of subsequent poor health. Socio-economic inequalities in adiposity are, therefore, of particular interest themselves but also because they may contribute to broader health inequalities. Focusing on income, the aim of this paper is to better understand inequalities using concentration indexes (CI) and decomposition techniques. Applying data from Understanding Society Wave 2 we estimate CI for body mass index (BMI), body composition (percentage body fat, %BF) and central obesity (waist circumference, WC). CI are then decomposed into the contribution of each of the adiposity determinants to the total inequalities, in order to identify the underlying factors shaping the income-related inequalities in adiposity. In males, we found no income-related inequalities using BMI. However, disentangling fat from lean-mass we show significant pro-rich inequalities (fat-mass is more concentrated among the poor). %BF and WC are associated with similar pro-rich inequalities (CI: -0.017 and -0.013 respectively; P<0.05). Results for females indicate the presence of pro-rich inequalities irrespective of the adiposity measure (CI: ranged between -0.020 and -0.031; P<0.01). Decomposition analysis revealed that the pro-rich inequalities are due to correlation between income and other determinants of adiposity. We found that educational attainment, subjective financial status and material deprivation measures are significant determinants of adiposity and make the most prominent influence on explained these inequalities. This suggests that policy efforts should to focus on upstream rather than proximal causes of inequalities.

Subjects

Link

Cid:523136

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