Table 4.
Father's employment status and risk of their children developing adult obesity
| Study (#, first author) (n = 17) | Type of study (P, R) | Country | Total sample n (% male) | Father's employment | Analysis/results | ± (f/m)* | P value | If data adjusted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (8) Baecke | R | Netherlands | 3,857 (46%) | Blue collar vs. professional | Regression | + (f/m) | <0.001 | Adjusted |
| (10) Ball | R | Australia | 8,756 (0%) | Blue collar vs. professional | Regression | + (f) | <0.001 | Adjusted |
| (18) Bua | R | Denmark | 562 (100%) | Unskilled vs. professional† | Mann–Whitney obese vs. controls | + (m) | <0.01 | |
| (29) Dundas | P | Scotland | 7,095 (48%) | Low level employment (SC III – V) | OR | + (f/m) | NR | Adjusted |
| SC IV 1.56 | ||||||||
| (CI – 1.14, 2.13) | ||||||||
| SC V 1.31 | ||||||||
| (CI – 0.95, 1.79) | ||||||||
| (41) Goldani | P | Brazil | 1,189 (100%) | Unskilled vs. professional† | Regression | + (m) | <0.05 | Adjusted |
| (48) Hardy | P | UK | 2,659 (NR) | Manual vs. non-manual; when child was 4 years | Multilevel models | + (f/m) | <0.01 | Adjusted |
| (59) Kuh | P | UK | 3,200 (50%) | Manual vs. non-manual; | Regression§ with WC; and WHR | (f) | NSD§ | Adjusted |
| + (m) | <0.05 | |||||||
| (61) Laitinen | P | Finland | 5,771 (49%) | Unskilled vs. skilled; @ child's birth ≥ 90th percentile | Chi Sq with WHR | + (f) | <0.05 | Adjusted |
| (m) | NSD | |||||||
| (62) Laitinen | P | Finland | 6,280 (46%) | Low vs. high level employment | Chi Sq | + (f) | <0.05 | Adjusted |
| (m) | NSD | |||||||
| (82) Parker | P | England | 1,142 (43%) | Unskilled vs. professional @ child's birth | Correlation | (f) | NSD | Adjusted |
| + (m) | <0.05 | |||||||
| (85) Power | P | Britain | 8,459 (48%) | Unskilled vs. professional | OR 1.99 | + (f) | ||
| (CI – 1.46, 2.72) | (m) | |||||||
| OR 2.19 | ||||||||
| (CI – 1.51, 3.19) | ||||||||
| (87) Power | P | Britain | 7,485 (51%) | Unskilled vs. professional for females @ 7 years for males @ birth | OR 1.31 | + (f) | Adjusted | |
| (CI – 1.16, 1.47) | (m) | |||||||
| OR 1.19 | ||||||||
| (CI – 1.06, 1.35) | ||||||||
| (88) Power | P | Britain | 12,274 (50%) | Manual vs. non-manual when child was 7 years | % SDS | + (f) | 9.2 vs. 4.1 | |
| >1.5 @ 23 years | (m) | 8.2 vs. 4.6 | ||||||
| (93) Ravelli | R | Netherlands | 283,028 (100%) | Manual vs. non-manual | Chi Sq | + (m) | <0.05 | |
| (118) Teasdale | R | Denmark | 2,015 (57%) | Unskilled vs. professional (scale 0–7) | Regression | + (f/m) | <0.05 | Adjusted |
| (120) Thomas | R | UK | 9,019 (NR) | Unskilled vs. professional @ birth | Chi Sq | + (f/m) | <0.001 | |
| (131) Wright | R | England | 514 (45%) | Manual vs. professional at birth | anova @ 50 years | + (f/m) | <0.01 |
(f/m) = females/males. Results are shown for adult female offspring (f), adult male offspring (m) or both (f/m).
Svalastoga prestige-based rating scale (154).
Social class based on father's occupation using the International System of Classification of Occupations (ISCO–1977) modified by Bettiol et al. (155).
For two studies (59,61), the early marker was evaluated with adult fat distribution (not body mass index [BMI]), with central adiposity measured as waist circumference/waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) (59) and WHR (61).
anova, analysis of variance; CI, confidence interval; NR, not reported; NSD, no significant difference. No association; OR, odds ratio; P, prospective study; R, retrospective study; SC, Social Class (III –V being considered lower SC); SDS = (log BMI − mean log BMI) ÷ SD log BMI.