Overweight and obesity by school socioeconomic composition and adolescent socioeconomic status: a school-based study.

BACKGROUND: The main objective of this study was to investigate the interaction effect of school socioeconomic composition (SEC) and adolescent socioeconomic status (SES) in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among a representative sample of French adolescents of the third most populous département of France. METHODS: 1038 adolescents agreed to participate (response rate: 91.4%). They self-reported anthropomorphic variables, SES, school lunch and physical activity. The body mass index was divided into six categories according to the Center for Disease Control. Multivariable binary logistic regressions analysis without and with interaction term were performed on overweight or obesity. Models fit was compared using the Aikaike Information Criterion. Odds-ratios (OR) and their 95% accelerated-bootstrap confidence interval (95%BCa CI) were computed to estimate overweight or obesity risk. RESULTS: 8.9% of the adolescents were overweight. 3.4% were obese. No school-SEC effect was observed among low-SES adolescents. Medium-SES adolescents were at greater risk in low-SEC (OR = 10.75, 95%BCa CI = 2.67-64.57) and medium-SEC (OR = 5.08, 95%BCa CI = 1.55-24.84) compared with high-SEC schools. High-SES adolescents in low-SEC schools were at greater risk compared with those in medium-SEC (OR = 5.94, 95%BCa CI = 1.94-17.29) and high-SEC schools (OR = 4.99, 95%BCa CI = 1.71-13.14). A social gradient was observed in medium-SEC (ORlow/high = 2.79, 95%BCa CI = 1.22-7.41) and high-SEC (ORlow/medium = 6.86, 95%BCa CI = 1.06-5.22*106) schools. CONCLUSIONS: Physical activity and lunch at and outside school help to understand these differences. Implications for obesity prevention initiatives are discussed.

Temporal Trends in Sports Participation among Adolescents between 2001 and 2015: A French School- and Territory-Based Study.

Improving adolescents’ levels of sport and physical activity (PA) is an official public health issue. French national government plans were launched in 2001, 2006, and 2011 to improve the participation levels of citizens. These plans should be monitored. To date, information on temporal trends in sports has come from the national population. However, no data are available to measure temporal trends in different territories across the country. Our study aimed to measure these trends among a representative sample of adolescent students of the third biggest French region (Bouches-du-Rhône), but also one of the poorest, between 2001 and 2015. Three surveys were conducted in 2001, 2008, and 2015 in high schools (n = 3218). Logistic regressions adjusted for age were used to determine the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on sports participation and to measure the changes in sport participation rates. Participation declined among all subgroups of adolescents: from 79.0% to 65.8%. The greatest decrease was observed for boys with a high SES, whilst the lowest was for the high-SES girls. We observed that SES inequalities in access to sport increased among the girls, whilst they reduced among the boys. National government plans seem to have had limited success in this territory. Next to national studies, there is a need to develop territory specific studies which could show important disparities across the national territory.