Abstract
Objectives
The aim was to analyze trends in overweight and obesity in relation to socioeconomic position among Danish adolescents in the 20-year period 1998–2018.
Methods
The study used data on self-reported height and weight and parents’ occupational social class (OSC) from 11-, 13- and 15-year-old schoolchildren in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018, n = 22,177. The analyses included absolute social inequality in overweight/obesity (prevalence difference between low and high OSC) and relative social inequality (OR for overweight/obesity).
Results
In the total sample, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 9.7% and 1.4%, respectively, with significantly higher prevalence in low than high OSC. There were significantly increasing trends in both overweight and obesity 1998–2018 in low OSC and no significant increase in high OSC. The OR for overweight was 1.59 (1.42–1.74) in middle and 2.16 (1.89–2.46) in low OSC, OR for obesity 1.74 (1.29–2.34) in middle and 2.97 (2.15–4.11) in low OSC. Associations were not modified by survey year.
Conclusions
There was a persistent absolute and relative social inequality in overweight and obesity 1998–2018 among Danish adolescents.
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Funding
The Nordea foundation (Grant No. 02-2011-0122) provided economic support for the 2010 study and The Danish Health Authority (Grant No. 1-1010-274/13) for the 2018 survey. The funding agencies did not interfere in the study design, data collection, and analysis, interpretation, writing of this article or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. None of the authors received any honorarium, grant or other form of payment to produce the manuscript.
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All authors have contributed substantially to the conception and design of the paper and to the interpretation of data. MTD, PD, BEH, LK, RFK, MR, SVR and MT collected the data. RFK and BEH developed the protocol for coding of occupational social class. BEH and MTD performed the analyses. MR and BEH wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript and a critical revision of the intellectual content. All authors have approved the final version of the manuscript and are accountable for all aspects of the work.
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There is no formal agency for approval of questionnaire-based surveys in Denmark. Therefore, we asked the school board as the parents’ representative, the headmaster, and the students’ council in each of the participating schools to approve the study. The participants received oral and written information that participation was voluntary, and that data were treated confidentially. The study complies with national standards for data protection. From 2014 the Danish Data Protection Authority has requested notification of such studies and has granted acceptance for the 2014 survey (Case No. 2013-54-0576) and the 2018 survey (Case 10 622, University of Southern Denmark).
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Rasmussen, M., Damsgaard, M.T., Morgen, C.S. et al. Trends in social inequality in overweight and obesity among adolescents in Denmark 1998–2018. Int J Public Health 65, 607–616 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01342-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01342-1