Obesity and Stature in Adolescence and Earnings in Young Adulthood: Analysis of a British Birth Cohort

doi:10.1001/archpedi.1994.02170070019003

You are seeing this message because your Web browser does not support basic Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing and what you can do to make your experience on this site better.

Vol. 148 No. 7, July 1994

Online Only
	•	Online First Table of Contents

Articles

•	Online Features

This Article
•	References
•	Full text PDF
•	Reply to article
•	Send to a friend
•	Save in My Folder
•	Save to citation manager
•	Permissions

Citing Articles
•	Citation map
•	Citing articles on HighWire
•	Citing articles on Web of Science (159)
•	Contact me when this article is cited

Related Content
•	Similar articles in this journal

Social Bookmarking
	What's this?

Obesity and Stature in Adolescence and Earnings in Young Adulthood

Analysis of a British Birth Cohort

James D. Sargent, MD; David G. Blanchflower, PhD

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1994;148(7):681-687.

Abstract

Objective
To examine the association between obesity and stature at variousages and earnings in young men and women at age 23 years.

Design
We estimated the effect of obesity on earnings by constructinga series of ordinary least-squares regression equations in whichthe dependent variable was the natural logarithm of hourly earningsat age 23 years. We report the coefficients for obese subjectscompared with those for the nonobese subjects and for heightwhile controlling for a number of other factors that are knownto affect pay.

Setting
A birth cohort of 12 537 respondents at age 23 years from theNational Child Development Study, which consists of all childrenborn in England, Scotland, and Wales between March 3 and 9,1958.

Outcome Measure
Hourly earnings at age 23 years as it relates to obesity, asdetermined by the body mass index and stature measured as acontinuous variable.

Results
Men and women who had been obese at age 16 years had significantlyfewer years of schooling than did their nonobese peers. Obesewomen performed poorly on math and reading tests at ages 7,11,and 16 years when compared with their nonobese peers. Regressionanalyses indicated no relationship between obesity at any ageand earnings at age 23 years in males. In contrast, there wasa statistically significant inverse relation between obesityand earnings in females, independent of parental social classand ability test scores of the child. Female adolescents whowere in the top 10% of the body mass index at age 16 years earned7.4% less (95% confidence interval, –11% to –3.8%)than their nonobese peers; those in the top 1% earned 11.4%less (–21% to –1.5%). The inverse relationship betweenobesity at 16 years of age and earnings persisted whether theadolescent female remained obese (–6.4% [–12.3%to–4.7%]) or moved into the nonobese category by age 23years (–7.5% [–12.5% to –2.4%]). A positiverelationship was found between height at age 16 years and earningsat age 23 years for men (but not for women) after controllingfor social class and IQ.

Conclusions
This study demonstrates an inverse relationship between obesityat 16 years and earnings at age 23 years for British women;the magnitude of the relation is similar to that of other factorsthat predict earnings, such as gender, job training, and unionmembership. In the case of men, we found a positive relationshipbetween height and subsequent earnings but no obesity effects.

(Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1994;148:681-687)

Author Affiliations

From the Department of Pediatrics, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH (Dr Sargent), and Department of Economics, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (Dr Blanchflower).

Add to CiteULike CiteULike Add to Connotea Connotea Add to Delicious Delicious Add to Digg Digg Facebook Add to Reddit Reddit Add to Technorati Technorati Twitter What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

A Narrative Review of Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity to Cognition and Scholastic Performance across the Human Lifespan
Burkhalter and Hillman
Adv Nutr 2011;2:201S-206S.

Sociodemographic and smoking associated with obesity in adult women in Iran: results from the National Health Survey
Bakhshi et al.
J Public Health (Oxf) 2008;30:429-435.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Socioeconomic Status and Obesity
McLaren
Epidemiol Rev 2007;0:mxm001v1.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Health behaviour and academic achievement in Icelandic school children
Sigfusdottir et al.
Health Educ Res 2007;22:70-80.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Life course social roles and women's health in mid-life: causation or selection?
McMunn et al.
J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2006;60:484-489.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Income Disparities in Body Mass Index and Obesity in the United States, 1971-2002
Chang and Lauderdale
Arch Intern Med 2005;165:2122-2128.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Adult socioeconomic, educational, social, and psychological outcomes of childhood obesity: a national birth cohort study
Viner and Cole
BMJ 2005;330:1354.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Relationship of Body Mass and Net Worth for Retirement-Aged Men and Women
Fonda et al.
Research on Aging 2004;26:153-176.
ABSTRACT

Personality functioning: the influence of stature
Ulph et al.
Arch. Dis. Child. 2004;89:17-21.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Health consequences of obesity
Reilly et al.
Arch. Dis. Child. 2003;88:748-752.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Coexistence of social inequalities in undernutrition and obesity in preschool children: population based cross sectional study
Armstrong et al.
Arch. Dis. Child. 2003;88:671-675.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

A Prospective Study of the Role of Depression in the Development and Persistence of Adolescent Obesity
Goodman and Whitaker
Pediatrics 2002;110:497-504.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

The size of obesity differences associated with educational level in Spain, 1987 and 1995/97
Gutierrez-Fisac et al.
J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2002;56:457-460.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Adolescents' Perceptions of Social Status: Development and Evaluation of a New Indicator
Goodman et al.
Pediatrics 2001;108:e31-e31.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Are there Long Term Protective Effects of Breast Feeding against Later Obesity?
Koletzko and von Kries
Nutrition and Health 2001;15:225-236.

The Association Between Childhood Depression and Adulthood Body Mass Index
Pine et al.
Pediatrics 2001;107:1049-1056.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Socioeconomic status and weight control practices in British adults
Wardle and Griffith
J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2001;55:185-190.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Body Image: Linking Aesthetics and Social Psychology of Appearance
Rudd and Lennon
Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 2001;19:120-133.
ABSTRACT

Accuracy of Teen and Parental Reports of Obesity and Body Mass Index
Goodman et al.
Pediatrics 2000;106:52-58.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Socioeconomic differences in weight gain and determinants and consequences of coronary risk factors
Martikainen and Marmot
Am J Clin Nutr 1999;69:719-726.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

The Stigma of Obesity in Women: The Difference is Black and White
Hebl and Heatherton
Pers Soc Psychol Bull 1998;24:417-426.
ABSTRACT

Burden of Illness Review of Obesity: Are the true costs realised?
McIntyre
The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health 1998;118:76-84.
ABSTRACT

Health Consequences of Obesity in Youth: Childhood Predictors of Adult Disease
Dietz
Pediatrics 1998;101:518-525.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT

Overweight Prevalence and Trends for Children and Adolescents: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, 1963 to 1991
Troiano et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 1995;149:1085-1091.
ABSTRACT

Growth in Obesity
Garn
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 1995;149:705-705.
ABSTRACT

| | |