Overweight and Obesity in Finnish Children by Parents' Socioeconomic Position-A Registry-Based Study

Päivi Mäki; Esko Levälahti; Susanna Lehtinen-Jacks; Tiina Laatikainen

doi:10.3389/ijph.2023.1605901

Overweight and Obesity in Finnish Children by Parents' Socioeconomic Position-A Registry-Based Study

Int J Public Health. 2023 Sep 1:68:1605901. doi: 10.3389/ijph.2023.1605901. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Päivi Mäki¹, Esko Levälahti¹, Susanna Lehtinen-Jacks^{2

3}, Tiina Laatikainen^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Health and Well-Being Promotion Unit, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Helsinki, Finland.
² The Health Sciences Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
³ Division of Public Health Sciences, School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden.
⁴ Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.

Abstract

Objectives: To examine associations between parents' socioeconomic position (SEP) and child overweight and obesity, using registry data. Methods: Data (final n = 194,423) on children's height, weight and parents' SEP were drawn from the national Register of Primary Health Care Visits (Avohilmo) and Statistics Finland. Risk ratios for bernoulli-distributed overweight (RR_OW) and obesity (RR_OB) according to SEP were estimated using generalized linear models and using a log -link. Results: The risk for obesity was lower in boys from high-income families (RR_OB 0.76), for overweight and obesity was lower in boys (RR_OW 0.72, RR_OB 0.58) and girls (RR_OW 0.72, RR_OB 0.54) with highly educated fathers, in boys (RR_OW 0.79, RR_OB 0.58) and girls (RR_OW 0.78, RR_OB 0.56) with high-educated mothers and in boys (RR_OW 0.85, RR_OB 0.77) and girls (RR_OW 0.80, RR_OB 0.69) living in urban areas, as compared to low-income families, low-educated parents, and rural residence, respectively. Conclusion: The risk of overweight and obesity was increased in children with low SEP or rural residence. Administrative registers are a valid approach to monitor childhood obesity by parents' SEP.

Keywords: childhood obesity; health disparities; overweight and obesity; registry-based monitoring; socioeconomic position.

MeSH terms

Child
Female
Finland / epidemiology
Humans
Male
Overweight* / epidemiology
Parents
Pediatric Obesity* / epidemiology
Poverty
Registries

Grants and funding

The STOP project (http://www.stopchildobesity.eu/) received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 774548. The STOP Consortium is coordinated by Imperial College London and includes 24 organizations across Europe, the United States and New Zealand.