A number of studies have investigated the relationship between socioeconomic status and health in both developing and developed nations. Generally low socioeconomic status increases the risk of ill health in developing nations, but in the Western nations it also increase the risk of being overweight. This suggests that in Western nations, those with the lowest socioeconomic status in society have higher intakes of foods that are likely to cause both disease and weight gain. Education levels are one aspect of socioeconomic status that have been extensively studied with regard health outcomes. Generally, studies have found that those who spend less time in education, indicating a low socioeconomic status, are more at risk of being overweight and developing disease when compared to those who spend more time in education. Interestingly, there are also differences between men and women with regard the effect of education levels on body composition.
For example, one group of researchers1 analysed the anthropometric measurements and educational duration of 1017 husband and wife pairs aged between 20 and 49 years in order to assess the associations between body fat and education level. The results showed that generally the wives had more body fat than the husbands for a given education level, except at very high levels education (>13 years). The wives body fat levels showed an inverse association to education level, with those having more years in education having the lowest body fat. However, for husbands the relationship was not straight forward with the data fitting a J-shaped curve. As education levels increased in men from the lowest level, body fat levels decreased, but after 10 years in education, body fat levels increased. This mean that at 13 years of education, the husbands had greater levels of body fat than wives for a given levels of education.
It is not possible to ascribe the cause and effect of such associations, but it is unlikely that the process of going to school or university makes you thinner. Therefore some other, unidentified factor is the reason for the complex relationship between education and body fat. Interestingly, women who married men who were more educated, indicative of a higher socioeconomic status, tended to have lower levels of body fat when compared to those who married men who were less educated. This could be explained by women with less body fat being more attractive to men, and men with more affluence and a higher socioeconomic status being more attractive to women. Despite much research, it is still unclear why there is an association between socioeconomic status and ill health in Western nations. In developing nations the poorest have limited access to healthy food and clean water so the relationship is easier to understand.
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