Figure 1.

Causal structures of mediators considered: representing two potential causal structures of socio economic position (SEP), mediating lifestyle behaviours (ML), an intermediate phenotype (MP) of body mass index (BMI) and co-morbidities (MM), and the causal structure of all mediators (M) assessed jointly (C) in the present study. (A) displays a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) where SEP leads to changes in ML, MP and MM, whereas (B) displays an alternative causal structure where SEP influences ML and ML influences MP, but MM influences MP. Based on these two potential directions (among others not represented) between mediators, we assess all mediators ‘en bloc’ as displayed in (C).