Abstract
Studies that investigated the association between socio-economic position (SEP) and obesity in children suggest inconsistent results. The aim of this study is to summarize and quantify the current evidence on SEP and risks of overweight and obesity in children aged 0–15 years. Relevant studies published between 1990 to Sep 4, 2014 were searched in Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Risk estimates from individual studies were pooled using random-effects models, according to lowest vs the highest SEP category. A total of 62 articles were included in the meta-analysis. The odds of both overweight risk and obesity risk were higher in the children with lowest SEP than in those with highest SEP (OR, 1.10, 95% CI: 1.03–1.17, and OR, 1.41, 95% CI: 1.29–1.55, respectively). Sub-group analyses showed that the inverse relationships between SEP and childhood overweight and obesity were only found in high-income countries and in more economic developed areas. In conclusion, our study suggests that children with lower SEP had higher risks of overweight and obesity, and the increased risks were independent of the income levels of countries.
Highlights
The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has been increasing at an alarming rate throughout the world
After excluding 4129 articles due to overlap between search categories, 9545 articles were screened. 9428 articles were excluded by screening title and abstract, and 117 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility
A total of 54 estimates from 26 individual studies were available for assessing the association between socio-economic position (SEP) and risk of childhood overweight, 55 estimates from 28 individual studies were available for assessing the association between SEP and risk of childhood obesity, and 53 estimates from 29 individual studies were available for assessing the association between SEP and risk of childhood overweight including obesity
Summary
The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has been increasing at an alarming rate throughout the world. Income, living space, parental educational level and car or house ownership were reported to modify children’s behavior relative to energy balance, affecting the likelihood of childhood obesity[8,9]. This relationship was inconsistent in different studies. Lower level of SEP was an independent risk factor of overweight and obesity in children[10,11,12], while www.nature.com/scientificreports/. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence for the relation between SEP and risks of overweight and obesity in children aged 0–15 years
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