Socioeconomic Status and Obesity

The relationship between obesity and food intake is well established: Obesity occurs when there is a relative long-term excess in caloric intake compared to energy expenditures. However, the likelihood of obesity also varies as a function of one's culture and socioeconomic status (SES).

A recent literature review by Sobal and Stunkard examined this relationship and provides clear evidence that in highly developed countries obesity and SES are inversely related, whereas in developing countries obesity and SES are directly related. That is, in industrialized, developed countries such as the United States or Britain, high SES is associated with lower rates of obesity, but in less industrialized, developing countries such as India, Columbia, or Nigeria, high SES is associated with higher rates of obesity. This relationship should be qualified, however, by pointing out that the inverse relationship between obesity and SES in developed countries applies primarily to women.

Sobal and Stunkard proposed some possible explanations for the differing relationships of SES and obesity between developed and developing countries and between men and women in developed countries. First, the availability of food is generally not as great in developing countries as in developed countries, particularly for low-SES populations. As SES increases, food availability increases, and as a result, so does the likelihood of obesity. Second, developing countries are more likely to have concepts of beauty that value fatness, whereas developed countries tend to equate thinness with beauty.

With increased SES, the resources for attempts to attain beauty are greater. In the developing countries, higher SES allows greater access to the food necessary to achieve the desired fatness. In developed countries, higher SES provides the greater income needed to acquire more costly "diet" foods and perhaps to participate in diet programs. Also, higher SES is associated with more leisure time and the facilities for physical recreational activity that promote weight control. Higher SES might also be associated with greater education concerning nutrition and weight-control advantages. Because the concept of attractiveness for men in developed countries does not emphasize thinness as greatly as that for women, and because men are less bound to attractiveness criteria in general, they do not reliably follow the inverse SES and obesity relationship found for women.

Koopman, J. S., Fajardo, L., & Bertrand, W. (1981). Food, sanitation and the socioeconomic determinants of child growth in Columbia. American Journal of Public Health, 71, 31-37.

Mueller, W. H., & Reid, R. M. (1979). Multivariate analysis of fatness and relative fat patterns. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 50, 199-208.

Power, C., & Moynihan, C. (1988). Social class changes and weight-for-height between childhood and early adulthood. International Journal of Obesity, 12, 445-453.

Sobal, J., & Stunkard, A. J. (1989). Socioeconomic status and obesity. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 260-275.

Reprinted from Whitford, F. W. (1995). Instructor's resource manual for Psychology: Principles and applications by S. Worchel and W. Shebilske. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.