Gender Differences in the Effect of Socioeconomic Disadvantage on Overweight/Obesity in Elementary Students

Background: Childhood obesity is often associated with socioeconomic factors and race/ethnicity and can be improved through regular physical activity and healthy eating habits. The Springfield Collaborative for Active Child Health, an academic-community partnership, seeks to reduce childhood obesity through collaboration, education and evaluation in local schools. One evaluation function of the Collaborative is to measure Body Mass Index (BMI) of first and fourth graders in local elementary schools.

Methods: We analyzed BMI data from 966 first and fourth graders. Overweight/obese was defined using the CDC’s BMI standards for children.  Other analytical factors were race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic disadvantage (SD). Students were considered SD if they were eligible for free/reduced lunch. We performed gender stratified logistic regression to assess if SD contributed to a greater likelihood of overweight/obesity.

Results: 63.6% of students were SD; 46.4%, 36.5% and 17.1% of students were white, black, and other race/ethnicity, respectively. 36.0% of all students were overweight/obese, including 34.7% of boys and 37.4% of girls. Logistic regression analysis indicated that SD girls were twice as likely to be overweight/obese compared to their non-SD classmates (Odds Ratio-OR=2.02, 95% Confidence Interval-CI: 1.33-3.07), even after controlling for race/ethnicity (OR=2.01, 95% CI: 1.32-3.08).There was no overweight/obesity difference between SD and non-SD boys in both unadjusted (OR: 1.19; 95% CI: 0.81-1.75) and adjusted analyses (OR=1.18; 95% CI: 0.81-1.74).   

Conclusion: Our results suggest the relationship between poverty and obesity may differ by gender. This may indicate that gender -specific interventions may be beneficial to address childhood obesity.