Abstract
BackgroundChildhood overweight and obesity is a growing health challenge in Japan and might be associated with childhood poverty.We aimed to investigate the association between low economic status and body mass index (BMI) and to reveal the mediators of this association among junior high school students in Japan.MethodsJunior high school students (N = 2968) from two cities in Shizuoka, Japan, were surveyed. Questionnaires assessed subjective economic status, weight, and height. Economic status was categorized into low and non-low, and BMI z-scores were calculated using the WHO Growth Reference. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted to determine the association between economic status and BMI z-scores, adjusted for covariates and stratified by gender.ResultsAmong girls, low economic status was significantly positively associated with BMI z-scores in the crude model (coefficient: 0.35; p = 0.001). In a model adjusted for breakfast skipping, the coefficient of economic status decreased by 28.57 % but remained significant (coefficient: 0.25; p = 0.017). In the final model adjusted for other possible covariates, low economic status remained significantly positively associated with BMI z-score (coefficient: 0.22; p = 0.044). The same association was not found for boys.ConclusionsLow economic status was positively associated with higher BMI among girls in junior high school in Japan, but this was not true for boys. Childhood poverty might be associated with overweight and obesity among adolescent girls in Japan. Health policies at junior high schools to discourage breakfast skipping might be effective for countering the association between childhood poverty and overweight in adolescent girls.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40608-016-0127-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Childhood overweight and obesity is a growing health challenge in Japan and might be associated with childhood poverty
These risk factors are likely to be associated with childhood poverty [18], few studies have investigated the association between socioeconomic status and childhood overweight and obesity in Japan
Statistical analysis We examined the association between economic status and body mass index (BMI) z-scores using linear regression analysis
Summary
Childhood overweight and obesity is a growing health challenge in Japan and might be associated with childhood poverty. The prevalence of obesity among Japanese schoolchildren in the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades was 9.13 %, 8.04 %, and 7.55 %, respectively, in 2015 [14] In Japan, risk of childhood obesity might be related to irregular intake of breakfast [16, 17]. These risk factors are likely to be associated with childhood poverty [18], few studies have investigated the association between socioeconomic status and childhood overweight and obesity in Japan
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