Adult Obesity and Socioeconomic Status

The relationship between obesity prevalence and socioeconomic status can be examined in different ways. This briefing compares several approaches to give a fuller picture of the current situation and of changes over time. l Overall, for women, obesity prevalence increases with increasing levels of deprivation, regardless of the measure used. For men, only occupation-based and qualification-based measures show differences in obesity rates by levels of deprivation. l Among women, most measures show that lower socioeconomic status is associated with a greater risk of obesity. The pattern is less straightforward for men, with only some measures showing a clear relationship between obesity and deprivation. l Obesity in women rises steadily with falling household income, and there is a significant difference in prevalence between the highest and lowest income groups. The differences are smaller for men and the trend is less clear-cut. (Figures 1 and 2) l There is also a significant relationship between obesity prevalence and occupation-based social class for women. The prevalence of obesity for women in unskilled occupations is twice that of those in professional occupations. The overall pattern is similar for men: those in professional occupations have lower obesity prevalence than any other group. (Figure 3) l When all manual and non-manual groups are combined, obesity prevalence is significantly higher in the manual group for both men and women. l The National Statistics Socioeconomic Classification (NS-SEC) shows a similar picture. Obesity prevalence is higher among both men and women in lower classifications, with smaller differences between groups for men. (Figure 4) l Obesity is also associated with educational attainment. Obesity prevalence is higher in both men and women who have fewer qualifications. (Figure 5) l The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 2007 shows that women living in more deprived areas have higher levels of obesity than those in less deprived areas. There is no clear pattern for men. (Figure 7) l Among men, the prevalence of obesity increased across all social classes between 1997 and 2008. (Figure 8). Among women, increases in obesity prevalence occurred in all classes except professional women where there was no overall change (Figure 9).