Using a new socioepidemiological questionnaire to analyse associations between intergenerational upward social mobility and body fat distribution: a pilot study with the Oxford BioBank cohort.

BACKGROUND: As measured through body mass index (BMI), obesity is more prevalent among upwardly mobile adults than among adults born into middle-class families. Although BMI reflects general adiposity, health risks are more strongly associated with abdominal adiposity. It is therefore important to investigate associations between upward mobility and fat distribution. METHODS: A socioepidemiological questionnaire was developed, qualitatively validated and piloted with Oxford BioBank participants. Sex-specific analyses of variance (ANOVA) investigated associations between participant occupational class and adiposity, paternal occupational class and adiposity, and upward occupational mobility and adiposity. The main aim was to observe whether the expected directional effect of adiposity in relation to paternal occupational class would emerge. RESULTS: 280 participants (166 women, 114 men; age 32-67 years) completed the questionnaire. Men with fathers of occupational class 2 or 3 had higher mean BMI, total body fat percentage, android fat mass and android-to-gynoid fat mass ratio than men with fathers of occupational class 1. Women with fathers of occupational class 2 or 3 had higher mean BMI, total body fat percentage, android fat mass and gynoid fat mass than women with fathers of occupational class 1. Among men, upward mobility was not associated with adiposity. Among women, upward mobility was associated with higher total body fat percentage, android fat mass and gynoid fat mass. CONCLUSION: The expected directional effect was found, thereby supporting the questionnaire's use. Upward mobility did not appear to change associations between paternal occupational class and participant adiposity. Future research using the socioepidemiological questionnaire should investigate associations between gender, educational mobility, adiposity and health.

Physical activity and the human body in the (increasingly smart) built environment.

Physical activity in the built environment of high income countries may be changing faster than at any time prior to the 2000s, with the engagement of social media, smart devices and increasing urban smartness that has come with the Internet of Things. This article describes the most salient features of built environments that have facilitated physical activity between the 1980s and 2000s (most importantly walkability and active transport with bicycles). It goes on to use the anthropological three bodies framework in association with that of forms of capital, to explore how the use of smart devices and increasing incorporation of smartness and performativity into architecture and urban planning since the 2000s might influence physical activity. Smartness and use of smart devices in the built environment should favour increased physical activity through new types of sociality that they facilitate. In turn, engagement with such technologies offers an important opportunity for the empowerment of the individual body-self and the social body towards increased physical activity.

The problem with relying on dietary surveys: sociocultural correctives to theories of dietary change in the Pacific islands.

BACKGROUND: Dietary surveys are frequently used as the basis for theorising nutritional change and diet-related non-communicable disease emergence (DR-NCD) in the Pacific islands. However, findings from historical survey data do not always align with ethnographic evidence. AIMS: This paper aims to examine the extent to which the two types of evidence can lead to similar conclusions, and draw out the implications for current theories of, and interventions addressing, nutritional change. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Dietary surveys carried out on Nauru between 1927 and 1979 are reviewed and compared with ethnographic evidence documented by social researchers across the colonial and post-colonial periods. RESULTS: This comparison reveals several shortcomings of survey data. Nutritional issues considered to be relatively recent-such as high-fat, low-fibre diets and transition to imported foods-occurred a century ago in our analysis and point to a long history of nutrition policy and intervention failure. Further, there is limited evidence that caloric intake overall increased significantly over this period of time in Nauru. CONCLUSIONS: Theories of dietary change and DR-NCD emergence and resulting interventions could be improved through a more holistic approach to nutrition that integrates sociocultural and historical evidence about both the target population and the scientists doing the research.

Inequality and childhood overweight and obesity: a commentary.

Statements on childhood overweight and obesity (COO) have focused on different avenues for prevention and treatment, critical stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy and lactation, individual, family, school and community-based interventions, multidisciplinary family programmes and multicomponent interventions. This commentary is concerned with the less-addressed relationship between COO and inequality. It describes current global patterns of inequality and COO and the ways in which those inequalities are linked to COO at micro-level, meso-level and macro-level. It then describes current programmatic approaches for COO inequality, preventive and medical, and considers important pitfalls in the framing of the problem of COO and inequality. It ends with describing how childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity prevention and treatment programmes might be formulated within broader socio-political frameworks to influence outcomes.

Low grandparental social support combined with low parental socioeconomic status is closely associated with obesity in preschool-aged children: a pilot study.

While the influence of parental socioeconomic status (SES) on children's weight status is well known, the impact of other family-related aspects such as parental and grandparental social support is less understood. This study investigates the importance of parents' SES and social support (functional and structural) for weight status in a clinical sample of preschoolers 4-6 years old with obesity (n = 39, 56% girls; 73% of parents were overweight/obese, 50% were of non-Swedish origin). Linear regression analyses, simple and multiple, were performed on SES and social support with child BMI SDS (body mass index standard deviation score) as the dependent variable. The results show that parents' income and low emotional support from paternal grandparents were significantly associated with more severe obesity. The association between parental income and the child's BMI SDS was stronger among parents who had low emotional support from their own parents. In conclusion, grandparental social support may be protective against childhood obesity.

Income Level and Food Intake Patterns among Male Bengalee Slum Dwellers in Kolkata, India.

This cross-sectional study explored the relationships between income levels and food intake patterns among slum dwellers in Kolkata, India. A total of 284 male subjects of Bengalee ethnicity participated in the study. The mean (SD) age, monthly family income and monthly per capita income of the subjects were 40.8 years (14.2), Indian Rupees (Rs.) 3259 (1574) and Rs. 700 (416) respectively. Potatoes, fresh vegetables, sweets and eggs were among the most frequently consumed food items on a daily basis. Butter, soft drinks, milk and ghee were least frequently consumed. The frequency of consumption of snacks, sweets and fruits showed strong significant correlations (p < 0.001). Principal component analysis of the frequency of consumption of different foods showed five components that explained a cumulative variance of 56%. Eigen values of components one to five were: 1.49 for fruit, sweets and snacks; 1.36 for fish and soft drinks; 1.16 for ghee and butter; 0.65 for fresh vegetables; and 1.02 for milk. Individually, these components explained 14, 12, 11, 10 and 9% of the variations respectively. Regression analyses showed monthly per capita income to be significantly associated with frequency of consumption of soft drinks (F = 6.79, p < 0.001) and fish (F = 7.90, p< 0.005). Age showed a significantly positive association with butter consumption (F = 9.41, p<0.002), and was negatively associated with intake of soft drinks and fried snacks (F = 10.10, p< 0.002). Using regression equations to predict the impact of increased income on consumption patterns, it was found that a 10% increase in income is associated with 1% increase in consumption of fish, which carries traditional prestige. A similar increase in income would also lead to 10% increase in consumption of soft drinks that has connotations of brand associated prestige.

Changing patterns of social variation in stature in Poland: effects of transition from a command economy to the free-market system?

The aim of this analysis was to examine the effects on stature in two nationally representative samples of Polish 19-year-old conscripts of maternal and paternal education level, and of degree of urbanization, before and after the economic transition of 1990. Data were from two national surveys of 19-year-old Polish conscripts: 27,236 in 1986 and 28,151 in 2001. In addition to taking height measurements, each subject was asked about the socioeconomic background of their families, including paternal and maternal education, and the name of the locality of residence. The net effect of each of these social factors on stature was determined using four-factor analysis of variance. The secular trend towards increased stature of Polish conscripts has slowed down from a rate 2.1 cm per decade across the period 1965-1986 to 1.5 cm per decade between 1986 and 2001. In both cohorts, mean statures increase with increasing size of locality of residence, paternal education and maternal education. The effect of each of these three social factors on conscript height is highly significant in both cohorts. However, the effect of maternal education has increased substantially while that of size of locality of residence and paternal education diminished between 1986 and 2001. These results imply that the influence of parental education on child growth cannot be due solely to a relationship between education and income, but is also perhaps a reflection of household financial management which benefits child health and growth by better educated parents, regardless of level of income. In addition they suggest that, irrespective of whether there are one or two breadwinners in the family, it is the mother, more so than the father, who is principally responsible for the extent to which such management best favours child health and growth. The asymmetry between the importance of maternal as against paternal education for child growth, clearly seen in the 1986 cohort, became more accentuated in 2001, after the abrupt transition from a command to a free-market economy in the early 1990s.

Socio-economic factors associated with physique of adults of the Purari delta of the Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea.

OBJECTIVE: To examine in detail the relationships between components of the modernization process, including experience of urban life, urban connectedness, education, and the nature and diversity of income sources on adult body size in a Papua New Guinea (PNG) population. METHODS: Mean height, weight and body mass index (BMI) of 292 adults surveyed in 1995-97 in the Purari delta, PNG, are reported by age group, and related to modernization variables including urban life, urban connectedness, economic status and education. RESULTS: With respect to BMI, 23% of males and 24% of females had a BMI greater than 25, while 1% of males and 6% of females had a BMI greater than 30. There were also significant numbers of undernourished individuals, especially among the females, where 13% had BMI below 18.5, compared with 5% of males with BMI below this level. Mean stature of younger adults is greater than that of older adults. For the males, height, weight and BMI are all negatively associated with age-squared, and positively associated with income. Weight is also positively associated with having urban relatives, but not with having lived in any urban centre. For the females, height is positively associated with age-squared, weight is positively associated with both income and number of years of education, while BMI is positively associated with income, and with having urban relatives, but not with urban dwelling per se. CONCLUSIONS: The secular trend toward increasing height may have been underway since the 1950s. Income level, number of years of education and having urban relatives emerge as core factors influencing body size and fatness in the Purari population.

Potential seasonal ecological challenge of heat strain among Australian Aboriginal people practicing traditional subsistence methods: a computer simulation.

It has been largely accepted that Australian Aboriginal people practicing hunting and gathering traditionally underused their objective economic possibilities by working short hours relative to nonhunter-gatherer populations. However, the possibility that their subsistence quest might have been limited by potential heat strain has not been considered for Australian hunter-gatherers. In this article the influence of work and heat load on the potential for heat strain among adult male Australian Aboriginal people is modelled. The possibility that the short working day of Arnhem Land adults reported in the literature might reflect ecologically limited work scheduling by way of potential heat strain is examined. Three climatic regions of the North of Western Australia and the Northern Territory were identified, using data available from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Data from the months of January, April, July, and October were used with the United States Army Heat Strain Model, along with assumptions with respect to work load and time scheduling. Predictive modelling indicates that a late start to the working day could carry considerable risks of potential heat strain during the summer, when humidity and maximum daily temperature are highest for all three climatic regions, but especially in the tropical coastal region. While extended work times may have been needed to acquire adequate food under traditional conditions, work output could have been limited by potential heat strain under some conditions likely to have prevailed.

Socioeconomic status, body size and physical activity of adults on Rarotonga, the Cook Islands.

Much of the secular trend toward increased body size among populations in the Pacific Region has been attributed to the processes of economic modernization and socioeconomic change. The primary objective of the present analysis was to examine the relationships between socioeconomic factors and stature, weight, body mass index and physical activity level of adult Cook Islanders living a largely modernized lifestyle in the Pacific Region. In a cross-sectional study of physical activity, body size and socioeconomic status, a volunteer sample of 345 Cook Islanders aged 20-65 years was obtained from the total adult population of Rarotonga, and measured at six out-patient clinics. Stature, weight, body mass index (BMI), physical activity level and age were calculated by sex and occupational category, years of education, island of birth and number of years lived on Rarotonga, respectively, using SPSSPC for Windows. Stepwise multiple regression was used to examine the relationships between stature, weight, BMI, PALweekday (a measure of physical activity level), age and non-linear functions of age, and the socioeconomic variables. These analyses indicate that the secular trend in stature is a function of the relative level of modernization on Rarotonga relative to other Cook Islands, and with level of education. These factors associate differently among males and females, the secular trend among males appearing to be a general phenomenon in response to lifestyle change associated with life on Rarotonga, while among females the trend is a function of lifestyle change associated with education and independent of island of origin. The trend toward increasing body fatness is also different for males and females. Weight declines with age for both men and women, in a linear way for the males, but in a non-linear fashion for the females. Body weight is also greater among those males in more skilled and professional occupations than among those with less-skilled professions. For the women, weight is independent of occupation category. Physical activity patterns of modernizing adult Cook Islanders show no relationships with socioeconomic variables for the males, but while older women are less active, those born on Rarotonga are less active than those born elsewhere in the Cook Islands. The number of years spent on Rarotonga shows no significant relationships with any of the physical measures, or with physical activity level. This is likely to be as much a function of small sample size as a lack of effect. Although declines in energy expenditure with increasing age have been demonstrated for both males and females in various populations around the world, on Rarotonga this holds true for females and not males, indicating that physical activity declines with increasing age in modernizing societies do not occur in uniform fashion.

Body size and physical activity levels of adults on Rarotonga, the Cook Islands.

Few studies of physical activity and energy expenditure have been carried out in the Pacific Region. In this study, the physical activity levels (PALs) of adult Cook Islanders living a largely modernised lifestyle by age group and occupation category were determined by a 3 day activity recall diary method. The period of observation included the previous Sunday, as a representative non-working day. A volunteer sample of 332 Cook Islanders aged 22 to 86 years was obtained from the total adult population of Rarotonga. Older adults are significantly less active than younger adults during the working week, but not during the weekend. Males are more physically active than females during the working week, but not on weekends. The mean weekday PAL of males engaged in traditional subsistence or who are unemployed is 1.88, while the mean weekday PAL of females engaged in traditional subsistence or who are housewives is 1.69. Male manual workers have a weekday PAL of 1.96, while female manual workers have a weekday PAL of 1.67. The weekday PAL values for those employed in clerical and administrative work are 1.82 (males) and 1.64 (females), while values for professionals are 1.76 (males) and 1.65 (females). Weekday physical activity is negatively associated with age, in nonlinear fashion. The PALs of adult Cook Islanders living a largely modernised lifestyle is lower in older age groups but does not vary by occupation category.

Increasing body size among adult cook islanders between 1966 and 1996.

There is limited evidence of a secular trend toward increased body size among populations in the Pacific Region, although some populations have shown a clear rise in overweight and obesity across the past 30 years or so. Mean height, weight and body mass index (BMI) of adults surveyed in 1996 on Rarotonga, the Cook Islands, are reported by age group and compared with data collected in 1966 by Evans and Prior, to determine the extent to which a secular trend in increasing body size has taken place across this 30-year period. In addition, a comparison of these anthropometric variables between subjects born on the most modernized island of Rarotonga with those born on other less-modernized islands is made, to determine the extent to which adult body size differs according to place of origin. Comparing the sample of those born on Rarotonga, the most modernized island, with those born on other, less modernized islands shows those born on Rarotonga to be taller, but not relatively heavier than those born elsewhere in the Cook Islands. Both males and females of the 1996 sample of adults are significantly taller, heavier, with higher BMI compared with the 1966 sample, indicating a secular trend toward increased body size across this 30-year period. The mean BMIs of the younger age groups in 1996 are greater than those of the same age groups in 1966, indicating a secular trend toward greater body fatness. There has been a significant increase in obesity among both males and females. In 1966, 14% of males had a BMI greater than 30, while in 1996, the proportion was 52%. Among females, 44% of those measured in 1966 had a BMI greater than 30, while in 1996 the proportion was 57%. The higher mean stature of younger adult males relative to older ones suggests that the secular trend toward increasing height may have been underway prior to 1966. The mean statures and weights of adults aged 60 years and older in the 1996 sample are more similar to values given for most age groups in the 1966 sample, indicating that the secular trend toward increased weight and height may have begun 50-60 years ago.

Secular trend in birthweight among the Purari delta population, Papua New Guinea.

The aim of this analysis was to examine the extent and possible seasonal nature of the secular trend in mean birthweight in the Purari delta, Papua New Guinea. This is a country undergoing rapid modernization, and with this has come a secular trend toward increased adult body size in some parts of the country but not others. Birthweight data, collected by month of delivery at Kapuna Hospital in the Purari delta between the years 1969 and 1996, was analysed by year of birth and by season, using one-way analysis of variance and post hoc Scheffé tests with the statistical software SPSS-PC+. A total of 927 birthweights for the years 1969, 1972, 1977, 1994 and 1996 were included in the analysis. Twin births were excluded from analysis, as were births below 1.5 kg. There is clear evidence of a secular trend in increasing mean birthweight between the period 1969 and 1996, with the largest significant difference being between 1977 and 1994, from 2.70 to 2.92 kg. There were no significant differences in mean birthweight between the sexes. The rate of birthweight increase between 1977 and 1994 was 130 g per decade, lower than the gain of 200 g per decade in the period 1994-1996. The decline in birthweight of 90 g per decade during the period 1969-1977 is not statistically significant. The proportion of infants born with low birth weight (< 2.5 kg) shows an increase between 1969 and 1972, and a decline thereafter. While seasonal differences in birthweight during any of the years examined is non-significant, significantly greater mean birthweight across the period 1969-1996 was found for births during the wet season (April to July), and the drier season (August to November), respectively. The secular increase in mean birthweight is likely to be a consequence of the improvements in maternal diet and increased maternal body size that have come with economic modernization. The secular trend of seasonality in mean birthweight among the Purari delta population may be a function of seasonally varied displacement of traditional diet by non-local bought foods, as well as reduced seasonality of maternal workload associated with the processing of the traditional staple food.

Waiting for Trivers and Willard: do the rich really favor sons?

Parental investment theory has been put forward as a major evolutionary argument explaining male or female biased birth sex ratio, the Trivers-Willard (T-W) hypothesis, predicting that parents living in good circumstances will bias their investment to sons, whereas parents in poor circumstances will bias their investment toward daughters. Tests of the T-W hypothesis on human beings have shown limited evidence for parents appearing to differentiate their investment to sons or daughters according to the reproductive potential of each sex. The present study tests the T-W hypothesis among a large contemporary Polish sample using first birth interval and extent of breastfeeding as measures of parental investment, and economic status and level of parental education as measures of parental condition. The extents to which parental investment and markers of parental condition vary by sex of the child were examined using log-linear analysis. Weak support for the T-W effect is found among families where fathers were best educated, where a greater proportion of first-born boys are breastfed longer than girls, while the opposite trend is observed among families with fathers with lowest levels of education. Although the present study does not fully support the T-W hypothesis, it gives evidence of greater investment in female offspring at the lower extremes of income, and greater investment in males at higher levels of income.

Anthropometry of two contrasting populations of Thai elderly living in a rural setting.

This study presents anthropometric data on 192 elderly males and 342 elderly females from two contrasting population settings in rural Thailand. Sixty per cent of the subjects lived in with relatives and 40% in a residential home. The elderly population in the present study had BMI values of 21 kg/m(2) for men and 22-23 kg/m(2) for women. Due to different age distributions in the two groups studied, the anthropometric values were adjusted for age. There was a negative correlation between age and weight for men and women at both sites. Both males and females were shorter with smaller armspan in the residential home. There were significant differences in the distribution of adipose tissue, after adjustment for age, between the two communities. Men in the residential home had larger waist circumference, triceps and biceps skinfold thicknesses but smaller subscapular skinfold thicknesses than the men in the rural community. Women in the residential home were heavier with larger biceps and triceps skinfold thicknesses and smaller arm circumferences than the women in the rural community. The elderly in the residential home had a general reduction in body fat with age, unlike the elderly in the rural community who showed a decrease in mainly peripheral fat. The likely impact of lifestyle and feeding practices in the two sites on body composition is also discussed.

Body size, fat distribution, menarcheal age and blood pressure in 14-year-old girls.

BACKGROUND: The relationships between body size and fatness and blood pressure are generally acknowledged. The majority of the few studies that have examined the effect of fat distribution and maturation rate on blood pressure have used secondary sex characteristics as the measure of maturity. The aim of the present study is to examine the associations between blood pressure and relative weight, fat distribution, recalled menarcheal age and occurrence of menstruation (yes/no) in a sample comprising of 1149 14-year-old girls. METHODS: Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), height, weight and body circumferences were measured using standard protocols. Fatness was expressed as body mass index (BMI, kg/m2), whereas fat distribution was estimated by using waist-to-hip ratio. The girls' maturity status was assessed from exact recalled date of menarche. One-way analysis of covariance and multiple linear regression analyses were used to determine the strength of association among systolic blood pressure (SBP), DBP and BMI, menarcheal age and indices of fat distribution. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Height and BMI are significantly associated with SBP. Relative weight is the most important factor related to SBP independently of chronological age and maturity status. Height and age at menarche are significantly associated with DBP. Height of 14-year-old girls shows the same strength of association with SBP and DBP, whereas maturity status negatively correlates with DBP. Fat distribution shows no effect on the level of DBP in girls.

Age differences in physique of adult males aged 30 to 86 years in Rarotonga, the Cook Islands.

In the Pacific Region, some adult populations have shown a steady rise in overweight and obesity across the 1970s and into the 1990s. While younger adults have been shown to have lower body mass index (BMI) than older ones in both the least and most modernised Samoan populations, among intermediately modernised Samoan populations, BMI has been found to be higher in younger adults than in older ones. A survey in the Cook Islands carried out in 1966 showed no age group differences in height, weight and BMI among adult males, but significantly higher mean weight and BMI among adult males aged 30 years and above. The present analysis gives mean height, weight, BMI and skinfolds of adult males above 30 years of age on Rarotonga in 1996, and examines whether the BMI-age group relationship now shows a similar transitional pattern to that observed on American Samoa. In addition, the 1996 values are compared with values obtained in 1986, to determine whether changes in physique have taken place across this time. In the 1996 volunteer sample of 142 male Cook Islanders, older adults are significantly shorter, lighter, with lower BMI than younger adults. Furthermore, the younger adults of the 1996 survey are significantly heavier, with greater BMI than the 1986 sample. This suggests that the adult male Rarotongan population is in an intermediate position with respect to lifestyle transition, the secular trend in body size and increasing prevalence of obesity, and that there has been a rapid increase in body fatness prevalence among younger adults.