“Socioeconomic status accounts for a large proportion of the disease
burden within the whole population,” say researchers Elizabeth Goodman,
M.D., from Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass., and colleagues from Cincinnati
Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “To understand youth
health and behaviors, the context in which youth live must be considered.”
The study appears in the November issue of the American
Journal of Public Health.
“Obesity and depression represent critical public health problems
for today’s youth, because both are highly prevalent chronic diseases
that track into adulthood,” Goodman says.
The researchers used 1994 household income data and parents’ educational
attainment from the families of 15,112 adolescents, surveyed as part of
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Goodman’s group
applied a standard measure of depression and calculated body mass index
from the teenagers’ height and weight to determine obesity.
Lower family income accounted for 26 percent of depression and 32 percent
of obesity among these adolescents. Forty percent of depression and 39
percent of obesity was attributable to lower parental education.
The researchers observed that the effect of lower parental education was
stronger than that of income for both depression and obesity.
“Education’s effect may relate more to differences in coping
styles and other interpersonal skills, whereas income’s effect may
be more strongly associated with material goods and services,” Goodman
suggests.
