Micro-environmental and socio-demographic determinants of childhood obesity

To review the available data in Spain about the socio-demographic and home environmental determinants in children and adolescents.

Review of the main studies conducted in Spain that have analysed the relationship between overweight and socio-economic and environmental determinants in children and adolescents.

In children aged 6-7 y from Aragon (Spain), the socio-demographic determinants of childhood overweight were size of municipality, year of examination, gender, and province; in adolescents aged 13-14 y, the socio-demographic determinants were year of examination, type of school, size of municipality, gender, and province; overweight showed a significant positive main effect with public schools and low municipality size. In a nationally representative sample of Spanish adolescents from 13 to 18.5 y (AVENA Study), there was a significant relationship between overweight and socio-economic status in males but not in females; in males, the lowest overweight prevalences were observed in both extreme socio-economic groups; moreover, overweight prevalences increased when socio-economic status decreased, from the high to the medium-low socio-economic group. The studied variables related with family environment did not show any significant effect in overweight prevalence.

Better knowledge of the relationship between social class and childhood obesity would lead to clearer hypotheses for the relationship in adults and might improve the preventive measures by identifying children at risk.