Doctoral Dissertation Research: Childhood Disadvantage and Body Weight in Adulthood

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

Substantial evidence demonstrates that people who are economically disadvantaged are more likely to experience a variety of adverse events related to health and other personal outcomes. Individual experiences of disadvantage begin before people are born and continue into childhood, during which circumstances related to family structure, income, and parental occupation shape subsequent experiences in adult life. This project examines how disadvantage experienced at different points in life creates long-term effects on a specific dimension of health: body weight. To date, many researchers have examined the contemporaneous effects of social position on health and weight status. But only recently have data and analytic techniques become available that make it possible to analyze the long-term effects of economic disadvantage on health later on in life. To measure the association between early disadvantage and weight status in adulthood, this project employs latent cluster analysis and multilevel model regression analysis. Three central hypotheses will be tested. First, it is hypothesized that higher levels of childhood disadvantage will be associated with increased adult weight. Second, it is hypothesized that adult neighborhood characteristics will be independently associated with adult weight status. Third, it is hypothesized that neighborhood characteristics will explain some, if not all, of the association between childhood disadvantage and adult weight status. Broader Impact Obesity has been characterized as a national epidemic, and rates of obesity are predicted to increase for the next several decades. Increasing rates of obesity, in turn, are associated with significant increases in predicted health care costs as well as lost income. For instance, obesity is associated with Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Moreover, this burden falls disproportionately on members of ethnic minority groups, such as African American women and Mexican-American men. Results of this dissertation will contribute to scholarly work on the long term effects of social inequality on health and life course outcomes. Results also seek to inform public policy on how to best address the American obesity epidemic. In light of recent efforts to reform access to and delivery of health care, findings may inform the ability of policy makers to design more effective programs aimed at curbing current obesity trends.