Socioeconomic status in relation to childhood general and central obesity in primary school children in the city of Farokh Shahr in 2009

Introdution: Since limited data are available in regard of the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity among children, our aim was to examine the association between SES and obesity among children. This cross-sectional study was done in Farokh Shahr among children aged 6-12y in 2009. 380 students were recruited through multi-stage cluster random sampling method from different districts. SES was defined through the questionnaire and participants were classified in to tertiles. Overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity were defined based on age- and sex-specific national cut-off points. Comparison of continuous and categorical variables was conducted by using independent samples’ t-test and Chi-square test, respectively. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to assess SES in relation to general and abdominal obesity in uni- and several multi-variable adjusted models. All statistical analyses were done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, version 15.0). P values less than 0.05 were considered as statistically significant. Comparing individuals in the highest versus lowest tertile of SES, there was no significant difference in waist circumference mean, but those in the middle tertile of SES had greater means of BMI after controlling for potential confounders (16.19±0.27 vs. 15.27±0.27 kg/m2, P= 0.002). We observed a greater chance of being overweight/obese for those in the highest tertile of SES compared with the lowest tertile (OR: 4.00, 95% CI: 1.53-10.59, Ptrend=0.004). No significant association was seen between SES and abdominal adiposity, either before or after controlling for potential confounders. We found that children in the highest SES class had a greater chance of being overweight/obese than those in the lowest SES class.