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Week 39/ 2005: Obesity is linked to social status

Obesity is linked to education and social status, according to a recent study published by the Department of Public Health and the National Institute of Public Health of Denmark. The study included some ten thousand Finns and Danes.

The highly educated and those with high occupational status were clearly less inclined to be obese than those with lower education. “Those who had only finished lower secondary school were twice as likely to be obese as highly educated people,” says Sirpa Sarlio-Lähteenkorva, a member of the research group.

The link between social status and obesity was more striking amongst women than men. In Denmark, in particular, low occupational status seemed to go hand in hand with female obesity. “Apparently the community puts greater pressure on women in high places to stay slim,” says Sarlio-Lähteenkorva.

According to her, the reasons for weight differences are hard to pinpoint. Probably such differences are caused by different lifestyles in different social classes. “Those who earn more have more money to spend on hobbies that promote health and on healthy food.”

Somewhat to the shame of Finns, the research showed Danes to be a lighter nation than Finns. There are more obese people in all social classes in Finland.

The research also revealed one interesting detail: married Finnish women are more often obese than their unmarried counterparts, while the situation is reversed for Danish women.

The social patterning of relative body weight and obesity in Denmark and Finland research is part of a Nordic project coordinated by the University of Helsinki, in which the effects of social status on health in different Nordic countries are compared.

Text: Simo Salmela
Photo: Promootio 2003
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Translation: Valtasana Oy