Middle Socioeconomic Status Families Research Articles

The Impact of Gender and Age on the Relationship between Body Mass Index and Hypertension among Middle-Aged Inhabitants of Kolkata, India

More than one billion people are hypertensive worldwide. This makes hypertension an issue of community health. Therefore, it should be our chief concern to identify the risk factors of hypertension and suggest essential preventive measures to reduce this public health burden. Diverse inquiries have uncovered the positive correlation between being overweight, obesity, and dyslipidemia with hypertension. Research suggests that Body Mass Index (BMI) and hypertension demonstrate a significant positive correlation. Excessive weight gain or visceral fat gain is the dominant risk factor for hypertension. Apart from this, several other factors like abdominal adiposity, family history, smoking etc. may be responsible for hypertension. In light of this context, the current article explores the relationship between adult residents of Kolkata's BMI and their hypertension levels. The study was performed among two age groups viz. 35 to 44 years and 45 to 54 years, as the problem is mostly uncommon for the young generation. The sample size of the present investigation was 200, having equal representation from both age and gender groups. The subjects were from middle socio-economic status families as inferred from their occupations. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), height, and weight were quantified. BMI was estimated from the measured height and weight. Descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients and ‘t’ tests were calculated. Impact of age and gender was determined on BMI and hypertension scores of the subjects. The results of the present study exhibit a constructive and significant association between the relevant variables. The correlation coefficient between body mass index (BMI) and SBP was 0.74, while that between BMI and DBP was 0.734. Both correlations were statistically significant at the 0.01 level of significance. The outcomes of the t-Test indicate that significant differences exist between the BMI, SBP, and DBP scores within the gender groups. The calculated t-values for BMI, SBP, and DBP were 7.946, 7.973, and 5.296, respectively, with all of them being significant at the 0.05 level of significance. Age was found to have no substantial impact on any of the three variables. These findings can aid in identifying individuals at risk and developing preventive strategies to mitigate the prevalence of obesity or overweight and subsequently reduce blood pressure levels among adults.

Early Life SES, Childhood Trauma Exposures, and Cardiovascular Responses to Daily Life Stressors in Middle-aged Adults.

Dysregulation in physiological responses to stress may provide a mechanism through which low socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood negatively impacts health. Evidence linking early life SES to physiological stress responses is inconsistent. Exposure to childhood trauma may be an important source of heterogeneity accounting for mixed findings. Guided by the adaptive calibration model, we examined whether childhood SES and childhood trauma jointly predict ambulatory measures of cardiovascular responses to daily life stressors. A sample of 377 healthy, middle-aged adults (62% female, 80% White, 64% college-educated, Mage = 52.59 ± 7.16) completed a 4-day ecological momentary assessment protocol that measured task strain, social conflict, and ambulatory systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP, respectively) at hourly intervals throughout the day. Average ambulatory blood pressure responses to stress were calculated by regressing momentary SBP and DBP on momentary measures of stress within the multilevel models. Early life SES and childhood trauma were measured retrospectively by self-report questionnaire. Multilevel models controlling for momentary influences on blood pressure and age, sex, and race showed no main effects of early life SES or childhood trauma on ambulatory measures of cardiovascular responses to daily life stress. An interaction emerged for DBP responses to social conflict, where individuals raised in middle SES families who experienced trauma showed a blunted response relative to those who did not ([Formula: see text]-0.93, 95% CI: [-1.62, -0.24], p = .008). There was no significant SES-trauma interaction in predicting SBP responses to social conflict or blood pressure responses to task strain. Results do not provide support for our predictions that were derived from the adaptive calibration model, but do suggest that the impacts of early childhood experiences on cardiovascular responses may vary by type of daily stress experience.

Child nominal derivation and parental input: Evidence from morphology-rich Russian

The purpose of current article is to describe the early phases of first language acquisition of nominal derivatives in morphology-rich Russian approaching an ideal inflecting-fusional language type. The results are based on the naturalistic longitudinal observations of two typically developing monolingual children (1;5–3;0) growing up in middle socio-economic status families (33 hours of recorded spontaneous speech). It has been revealed that derivation morphology, viz. affixation, starts to develop early and precedes compounding. Within nouns, suffixation is the main method of word-formation. Prefixation and mixed methods are rare. Although nouns can be formed from almost any grammatical classes, they are mainly formed from nouns in child speech. Early compounds can be described as right-headed endocentric ones where their main component is a noun or a verb. The preference for certain patterns and models rarely differs in child speech corpora. Both children have similar development of semantic categories and only a few innovations. The morpheme and semantic (cognitive) complexity of nominal derivatives in child speech increase by the end of the observation period. The influence of parental input is significant for the mechanisms of derivation morphology acquisition. This is confirmed by the presence of a positive correlation for both lemmas and tokens of nominal derivatives. The most frequent patterns in parental input are acquired by a child earlier.

A Study on Tobacco Use Among School Children.

Tobacco use among school children is becoming a serious problem. The early age of initiation underscores the urgent need to intervene and protect this vulnerable group from falling prey to this addiction. The present study was undertaken to assess (i) the prevalence and pattern of tobacco use among school children in India (ii) relation of tobacco use prevalence and pattern with socio-economic status (SES) of student's family. This is a cross sectional 16months study done in school going Indian students aged ≥ 6years with sample size of 1460. The prevalence of tobacco use in children from lower SES families was 9.4% compared to 5.7% in children from middle SES families (p = 0.017). Among children who used tobacco, mean age of onset was younger among children from lower SES (9.97year vs 11.85year, p = < 0.01) and they were more likely to use smokeless tobacco only (79.1% vs 61.3%, p = .0.006). However there was no significant difference between two groups in factors which motivated them towards first experience of tobacco. Also there was no significant difference between family histories of two groups in terms of tobacco use. The high prevalence of tobacco consumption, especially smokeless tobacco among children highlights the need for early intervention like regular screening at school level. Also tobacco use cases need to be followed up with intensive treatment.

Positive Symptoms and Perceived Parental Acceptance-Rejection in Childhood: The Moderating Roles of Socioeconomic Status and Gender

The current study aimed to investigate the moderating roles of socioeconomic status (SES) and gender in the relationship between the positive symptoms of patients with schizophrenia and their recollections of parental acceptance-rejection in childhood. This study included 53 outpatients (20 females and 33 males) who were diagnosed with schizophrenia at the Ankara University and Ege University Faculty of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. Of the participants, 22.6% were from low SES families, 55.7% were from middle SES families, and 22.6% were from high SES families. The relationship between the participants' positive symptoms and recollections of parental acceptance-rejection in childhood were assessed by the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms and the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire/Control. Compared to schizophrenia patients from middle and high SES families, those from low SES families perceived their mothers and fathers as more cold, neglectful, rejecting, and less controlling in their childhood. Among the parental acceptance-rejection subscales, only maternal indifferences/neglect was related to the participants' positive symptoms. A three-way interaction (moderated moderation) analysis indicated that SES significantly moderated the effect of perceived maternal neglect on positive symptoms for female, but not male, patients with schizophrenia. The severity of positive symptoms of female patients with schizophrenia, especially those from low and middle SES families, may be reduced by examining recollections of maternal neglect in childhood and, if necessary, applying trauma or attachment-focused interventions.

Socioeconomic Status and Preschoolers' Mathematical Knowledge: The Contribution of Home Activities and Parent Beliefs

Research Findings: Children from families of lower socioeconomic status (SES) enter kindergarten with less developed mathematical knowledge compared to children from middle SES families. This discrepancy is present at age 3 years and likely stems from differences in the home learning environment. This study reports SES-related differences both in the quantity and quality of mathematical support children receive in the home and in parent beliefs about early mathematical development and then compares both with children's performance on a comprehensive mathematics assessment. Participants included 90 children in their 1st year of preschool (2 years before kindergarten entry) and 88 children in their prekindergarten year (the year just prior to kindergarten entry). Both cohorts were balanced for SES and gender. The results suggested minimal SES-related variation in mathematical support received in either cohort but clear SES differences in parents’ beliefs about early mathematical development. Middle SES parents of children in both cohorts held higher expectations in terms of skills they expected children to possess by age 5, as well as a more accurate understanding of which skills are within the developmental range of most children by age 5. These differences accounted for unique variance in children's scores on the mathematics assessment. Practice or Policy: Implications are discussed.

Weight status and eating habits of adolescent Nigerian urban secondary school girls

Background. Obesity in adolescence is common, and eating habits are a key determinant. Eating habits in adolescence often differ substantially from those in any other phase of life. Objective. To assess the weight status and eating habits of adolescent urban secondary school girls in Benin City, Nigeria. Methods. In this school-based cross-sectional study, data were obtained on the subjects’ eating habits via a structured anonymous self-administered questionnaire, while their weights and heights were obtained by direct measurements. The body mass index (BMI), calculated as weight/height (kg/m 2 ), was used in assessing the weight status of the participants. The study sample was 2 097 adolescent urban public school girls, aged 12 - 19 years. Information was obtained on frequencies of skipping meals, reasons for skipping meals and food choices, as well as the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants. All the students at the two study schools were invited to participate. Results. The mean age of the participants (± standard deviation) was 14.8±1.9 years (95% confidence interval (CI) 14.7 - 14.9). Slightly over half (52.6%) were from families of middle socio-economic status, and 84.7% of them lived with their parents. Of the 2 097 participants, 1 009 (48.1%) admitted to skipping at least one meal a fortnight. Of the three main meals, breakfast was the most frequently skipped (46.3%) and dinner the least frequently skipped (21.5%). With regard to age, the frequency of skipping meals was 30.1%, 50.4% and 58.5% among participants aged <14 years, 14 - 16 years and ≥17 years, respectively ( p <0.001). The two leading reasons cited by participants for skipping breakfast were lack of appetite and time. Only 15.2% of the participants reported daily consumption of fruits and vegetables. Over half of the participants (60.2%) ate fast food at least once a week, with more than three-quarters of them (76.4%) consuming fast food along with soft drinks. The prevalences of both overweight (24.5% v. 13.2%) and obesity (2.5% v. 1.1%) were higher among girls who skipped meals compared with their peers who did not skip meals (odds ratio 0.4, 95% CI 0.32 - 0.50). Conclusion. Meal skipping was associated with an increased prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescent schoolgirls.

Migrant Background and Weight Gain in Early Infancy: Results from the German Study Sample of the IDEFICS Study

ObjectiveTo examine variations in infant weight gain between children of parents with and without migrant background and to investigate how these differences are explained by pre- and perinatal factors.MethodsWe used data on birth weight and weight at six months from well-child check-up books that were collected from a population-based German sample of children in the IDEFICS study (n = 1,287). We calculated unadjusted and adjusted means for weight z-scores at birth and six months later. We applied linear regression for change in weight z-score and we calculated odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for rapid weight gain by logistic regression, adjusted for biological, social and behavioural factors.ResultsWeight z-scores for migrants and Germans differed slightly at birth, but were markedly increased for Turkish and Eastern European infants at age six months. Turkish infants showed the highest change in weight z-score during the first 6 months (ß = 0.35; 95% CI 0.14–0.56) and an increased probability of rapid weight gain compared with German infants. Examination of the joint effect of migrant and socioeconomic status (SES) showed the greatest change in weight z-scores in Turkish infants from middle SES families (ß = 0.77; 95% CI 0.40–1.14) and infants of parents from Eastern European countries with high SES (ß = 0.72; 95% CI 0.13–1.32).ConclusionsOur results support the hypothesis that migrant background is an independent risk factor for infant weight gain and suggest that the onset of health inequalities in overweight starts in early infancy.

SES, ethnic, and gender differences in young children's informal addition and subtraction: A clinical interview investigation

The main goal of this study was to examine possible socioeconomic status (SES) differences in 4- and 5-year-old children's informal mathematical knowledge. One hundred and two children, 32 from lower, 39 from middle, and 31 from upper SES families participated in the study. Each participant was given a clinical interview involving several addition and subtraction problems and a related representation task. With and without scaffolding, the children from the upper SES group showed higher rates of success on many problems than did the children from the lower and middle SES groups. At the same time, the results fail to reveal significant differences in the performance levels of children from lower and middle SES families. Furthermore, all of the SES groups used very similar strategies. Although the children from the upper SES group showed higher levels of performance, their underlying knowledge (strategies) differed little from that of children from the lower and middle SES groups. These results are consistent with the hypotheses that both common biological inheritance and a common environment rich in opportunities for mathematical learning insure the development of basic mathematical competence in virtually all children. The study also found almost no gender or ethnic differences in performance and underlying knowledge. The results suggest that evaluators and educators should employ flexible methods, like the clinical interview, to assess mathematical knowledge and that preschoolers can benefit from a rich mathematics education.

Predictors of Support Service Interest and Participation by Families of Children with Spina Bifida

Nurses who work with families of children with spina bifida know that parents need psychosocial support, but may not know whom to target with limited support service resources. The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of both support service interest and participation. The caretakers of 60 children with spina bifida (myelomeningocele), 1 to 17 years of age, attending an interdisciplinary outpatient spina bifida clinic, were interviewed. Potential predictors of service interest and participation included socioeconomic status (SES), social support, parent demographics, and severity of the child's impairment. Service interest was measured using a survey that quantified the amount of interest in supportive and recreational services. Families were then categorized as participants versus nonparticipants based on whether they actually requested and utilized available support services. Parents whose children had more medical problems reported higher interest in both recreational and supportive parent-to-parent services. Although earlier research suggests that SES and distance from home affect stress and should be related to interest in support services, the correlational results of this study suggested no relationship between these variables and support service interest or participation. Closer examination indicated that there might be a nonlinear relationship, such that middle SES families were more interested than either upper or lower SES families, and were more likely to participate in available programs.