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Socio-economic status and body composition outcomes in urban South African children

P L Griffiths1, E K Rousham, S A Norris

  • 1Loughborough University, Department of Human Sciences, Loughborough, UK. p.griffiths@lboro.ac.uk

Archives of Disease in Childhood
|May 6, 2008
PubMed

Insights

Socio-economic status (SES) in childhood influences body composition. Higher SES at birth correlated with greater lean mass, while higher SES at ages 9-10 was linked to increased fat mass in children.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Nutrition
  • Growth and Development
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Socio-economic status (SES) is a key determinant of health outcomes, including nutritional status and body composition in children.
  • Understanding the relationship between SES and body composition across different childhood stages is crucial for addressing health inequalities.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between socio-economic status (SES) measured at birth and during childhood (ages 9-10 years) and body composition at ages 9-10 years.
  • To differentiate the impact of early-life SES versus later childhood SES on specific body composition metrics.

Main Methods:

  • A mixed-longitudinal cohort study of 281 children from the Birth to Twenty (Bt20) cohort in Johannesburg-Soweto, South Africa.
  • Body composition, including fat mass index (FMI) and lean mass index (LMI), was assessed using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA).
  • Linear regression models were employed to analyze the influence of SES at birth and ages 9-10 years on FMI, LMI, and body mass index (BMI), controlling for relevant covariates.

Main Results:

  • Higher SES at birth was associated with increased lean mass index (LMI) at ages 9-10 years.
  • Conversely, higher SES at ages 9-10 years was associated with increased fat mass index (FMI) at the same age.
  • SES at birth and ages 9-10 years explained 8% of the variance in FMI and 6% in BMI among black children.

Conclusions:

  • The study highlights the importance of assessing SES across childhood to understand nutrition inequalities.
  • It emphasizes the need to consider both lean and fat mass, in addition to BMI, when examining the relationship between SES and body composition in pediatric populations.
Abstract

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