Journal
SOCIAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE
Volume 68, Issue 9, Pages 1692-1699Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.02.024
Keywords
France; Obesity; Body mass index (BMI); Social origins; Family history; Gender; Early hardship
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This study investigates the relation between early life conditions and adult obesity in France, using a rich data set collected through the 2003 nationally representative Life History Survey. No salient factor emerged in men, while in women, after controlling for current socio-demographic characteristics, a relation was found between obesity and the following factors: father's occupation (OR = 3.2 for women whose father was a clerical worker, versus those whose father was in a higher-level occupation): experience of economic hardship in childhood (OR = 2.0), and; high parity (OR = 2.1 for parities of more than 3 versus parity of 1). Neither early family history nor mother's working status surfaced as significant factors. Those findings highlight a definite gender pattern, with a strong association between early disadvantage and obesity in women, but not in men. Potential mechanisms are discussed, particularly the habitus, the thrifty phenotype and the feast-famine hypotheses, and possible interactions with childbearing and motherhood. An integration of social and biological perspectives is needed to reach a better understanding of the processes involved, and to achieve progress in primary and secondary prevention. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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