Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Parental education, body mass index and prevalence of obesity among 14-year-old boys between 1987 and 1997 in Wrocław, Poland

  • Published:
European Journal of Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to examine changes in relative weight and prevalence of obesity across a ten-year period among 14-year-old boys according to parental education level. Data from two surveys, carried out in 1987 and 1997, of boys attending the 7th grade of primary schools in Wrocław were used in the analysis. The heights and weights of 3165 boys aged 14 years selected from cohort of 6969 7th and 8th grade boys from all primary schools of the city Wrocław were used. The data of the second sample of 14-year-old boys (n = 1014) were obtained from a health examination study carried out in the Silesian Centre for Preventive Medicine, `DOLMED', in Wrocław in 1997. All boys attended the 7th grade of 34 randomly selected primary schools from a total of 129 schools in the city of Wrocław. Social status was assessed on the basis of parental education level scored to four categories: university, secondary school, trade school, and elementary school. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was defined as the percentage of children above the 85th and 95th percentiles of the body mass index (BMI), the means of which were 21.27 and 23.75 kg/m2 respectively. Prevalence of overweight among boys is slightly lower in the 1997 sample, whereas the prevalence of obesity shows the opposite trend and is higher by more than one percent in comparison with the 1987 sample. Similar trends of declining medians and increasing variance are observed in all educational groups. The differences in medians between the two samples within educational groups did not achieve statistical significance for the groups with parents with education at elementary level and fathers with university education. There is a trend toward increasing prevalence of obesity across the decade considered, according to father's education level. With respect to mother's education levels, the most dramatic changes in BMI and obesity occurred in the elementary education group, where the percentage of obese subjects increased more than twofold. A significant increase is also observed in the group with parents attaining university education.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Sobal J, Stunkard AJ. Socioeconomic status and obesity: A review of literature. Psychol Bull 1989; 105: 260-275.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Peckham CS, Stark O, Simonite V, Wolff OH. Prevalence of obesity in British children born in 1946 and 1958. Br Med J 1983; 286: 1237-1242.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Kimm SY, Obarzanek E, Barton BA, et al. Race, socioeconomic status, and obesity in 9-to 10-year-old girls: The NHLBI growth and health study. Ann Epidemiol 1996; 6(4): 266-275.

    Google Scholar 

  4. De Spiegelaere M, Dramaix M, Hennart P. The Influence of socioeconomic status on the incidence and evolution of obesity during early adolescence. Int J Obes 1998; 22: 268-274.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bogin B, Sulliwan T. Socioeconomic status, sex, age, and ethnicity as determinants of body fat distribution for Guatemalan children. Am J Phys Anthropol 1986; 69: 527-535.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Muller WH. Environmental sensitivity of different skinfold sites. Human Biol 1986; 58: 499-506.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Martorell R, Khan LK, Hughes ML, Grummer-Strawn LM. Obesity in Latin American women and children. J Nutr 1998; 128(9): 1464-1473.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Bielicki T, Welon Z. Growth data as indicators of social inequalities: The case of Poland. Yearbook Phys Anthropol 1982; 25: 153-167.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Whitelaw AGL. The association of social class and sibling number with skinfold thickness in London schoolboys. Human Biol 1971; 43: 414-420.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Chrzanowska M. Biologiczne i społeczno-ekonomiczne determinanty rozwoju podskórnej tkanki tłuszczowej u dzieci i młodzieży. Kraków 1992 (in Polish).

  11. Hulanicka B, Brajczewski C, Jedlińska W, Sławińska T, Waliszko A. City-Town-Village: Growth of children in Poland in 1988. Monographies Ins Anthropol 1990; 7, Wrocław 1990 (in Polish).

  12. Krzemień A. Zróżnicowanie otłuszczenia dzieci i młodzieży pochodzacych z różnych środowisk społeczno-ekonomicznych w 1978 i 1988 roku. Wychowanie Fizyczne i Sport 1997; 4: 70-79 (in Polish).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Dietz WH, Bellizzi MC. Introduction: The use of body mass index to assess obesity in children. Am J Clin Nutr 1999; 70(suppl.): 123-125.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Bielicki T, Szklarska A, Welon Z, Malina RM. Variation in the body mass index among young adult Polish males between 1965 and 1995. Int J Obes 2000; 24: 1-5.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Rona RJ. Obesity and society. Can we tackle the problem? Abstracts in: Human Growth and Development — The Eight International Congress of Auxology, 1997, Philadelphia.

  16. Wolfe WS, Campbell CC, Frongillo EA Jr, Haas JD, Melnik TA. Overweight schoolchildren in New York State: Prevalence and characteristics. Am J Pub Health 1994; 84(5): 807-813.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Sorensen TIA, Price RA. Secular trends in body mass index among Danish young men. Int J Obes 1990; 14: 411-419.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Jacome de Castro J, Dias JA, Baptista F, Garcia e Costa J, Galvao-Teles A, Camilo-Alves A. Secular trends of weight, height and obesity in cohorts of young Portuguese males in the District of Lisbon: 1960 to 1990. Euro J Epidemiol 1998; 14: 299-303.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Kromeyer-Hauschild K, Zellner K, Jaeger U, Hoyer H. Prevalence of overweight and obesity among school children in Jena (Germany). Int J Obes 1999; 23: 1143-1150.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Rogucka E, Bielicki T. Social contrasts in the incidence of obesity among adult large-city dwellers in Poland in 1986 and 1996. J Biosoc Sci 1999; 31: 429-423.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Dietz WH, Gortmaker SL. Do we fatten our children at the TV set? Television viewing and obesity in children and adolescents. Pediatrics 1985; 75: 807-812.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Beunen G, Malina RM, Ostyn M, Renson R, Simons J, Van Gerven D. Fatness and skeletal maturity of Belgian boys 12 through 17 years of age. Am J Phys Anthropol 1982; 59: 387-392.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Kozieł S. Combined effect of tempo of maturation and mid-parent height on shape of the individual growth curve. Am J Human Biol 1997; 9: 555-564.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Charzewski J, Lewandowska J, Piechaczek H, Syta A, Łukaszewska L. Wiek menarche dziewczat warszawskich 1986–1997. (Age of menarche of Warsaw girls 1986–1997). Wychowanie Fizyczne i Sport 1998; XLII(1): 61-66 (in Polish).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Anthropology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kuznicza 35, 50-951, Wrocław 56, Poland

    Sławomir Kozieł & Halina Kołodziej

  2. Institute of Biological Anthropology, University of Oxford, 58 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6QS, UK

    Stanley J. Ulijaszek

Authors
  1. Sławomir Kozieł
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Halina Kołodziej
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Stanley J. Ulijaszek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kozieł, S., Kołodziej, H. & Ulijaszek, S.J. Parental education, body mass index and prevalence of obesity among 14-year-old boys between 1987 and 1997 in Wrocław, Poland. Eur J Epidemiol 16, 1163–1167 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010924511774

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010924511774

Search

Navigation