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Socioeconomic inequalities in children's weight, height and BMI trajectories in Norway

Teferi Mekonnen1, Eleni Papadopoulou2, Onyebuchi A Arah3

  • 1Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. t.m.yitayew@medisin.uio.no.

Scientific Reports
|March 3, 2021
PubMed

Insights

Social inequalities in children's body mass index (BMI) emerge in infancy and persist until age 8. These disparities, linked to parental education and income, highlight the need for early life interventions to promote child health.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatrics
  • Public Health
  • Sociology

Background:

  • Limited research exists on the emergence and evolution of social inequalities in children's body mass index (BMI) and its components with age.
  • Understanding these early-life social disparities is crucial for developing targeted public health interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate parental income and education-related inequalities in children's weight, height, weight velocity, and BMI from 1 month to 8 years of age.
  • To determine the age of onset and persistence of these socioeconomic disparities in child growth and BMI.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from 59,927 family/child pairs in the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study.
  • Employed the Jenss-Bayley model for growth trajectory modeling.
  • Conducted linear mixed-effects analyses to assess socioeconomic inequalities.

Main Results:

  • Maternal and paternal educational differences in children's weight and BMI trajectories were evident from infancy through 8 years.
  • Parental income-related inequalities in weight were observed during early childhood but diminished over time.
  • Socioeconomic disparities in children's BMI emerged in infancy and persisted until age 8, varying by parental income and education.

Conclusions:

  • Social inequalities in children's BMI manifest early in infancy and continue through age 8.
  • The specific indicators of socioeconomic position (income vs. education) influenced the observed inequalities.
  • Early-life interventions are necessary to address and mitigate these persistent social disparities in child BMI.

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