Table 4.
Summary of associations between socioeconomic position and fat measures in adults in high-income countries and middle-income countries.
| SEP indicator | Direction of relation between SEP and fat measure | Total | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Positive | Negative | Non-linear | No relation | ||||||||||
| N | % | References | N | % | References | N | % | References | N | % | References | N | |
| High-income countries | |||||||||||||
| Fat mass (kg) | |||||||||||||
| Education | 0 | – | – | 2 | 50 | [31]F [28] | 1 | 25 | [67] | 1 | 25 | [48] | 4 |
| Composite SEP | 0 | – | – | 1 | 100 | [28] | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 1 |
| Area-level SEP | 0 | – | – | 3 | 100 | [43]F [37]F [28] | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 3 |
| Father’s education | 0 | – | – | 1 | 100 | [53] | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 1 |
| Fat mass % | |||||||||||||
| Composite SEP | 0 | – | – | 1 | 33 | [64]F | 0 | – | – | 2 | 66 | [64]M [71] | 3 |
| Education | 0 | – | – | 7 | 58 | [70]F [54]F [38]F [67]F [52, 61, 65] | 2 | 16 | [70]M [54]M | 3 | 25 | [38]M [68]M [67]M | 12 |
| Occupational social class | 0 | – | – | 4 | 66 | [51]F [52]F [72]M [72]F | 0 | – | – | 2 | 33 | [51]M [68]M | 6 |
| Income | 0 | – | – | 1 | 100 | [65] | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 1 |
| Area-level SEP | 0 | – | – | 2 | 66 | [54]F [54]M | 0 | – | – | 1 | 33 | [42] | 3 |
| Miscellaneous | 0 | – | – | 3 | 50 | [54]F [54]M [53] | 1 | 17 | [54]M | 2 | 33 | [54]F [68]M | 6 |
| Fat Mass Index | |||||||||||||
| Education | 0 | – | – | 2 | 50 | [33]F [33]M | 2 | 50 | [54]F [54]M | 0 | – | – | 4 |
| Income | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 2 | 100 | [33]F [33]M | 0 | – | – | 2 |
| Miscellaneous | 0 | – | – | 5 | 63 | [54]F [54]M [54]M [33]F [33]M | 2 | 25 | [54]F [54]M | 1 | 13 | [54]F | 8 |
| Middle-income countries | |||||||||||||
| Fat mass (kg) | |||||||||||||
| Education | 0 | – | – | 1 | 100 | [34]F | 1 | ||||||
| Composite SEP | 1 | 100 | [60]M | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 1 |
| Type of employment | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 1 | 100 | [50]F | 0 | – | – | 1 |
| Fat mass % | |||||||||||||
| Composite SEP | 2 | 100 | [57]F [60]M | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 2 |
| Education | 1 | 17 | [39] | 1 | 17 | [46]F | 0 | – | – | 4 | 67 | [45]M [45]F [69]F [29]F | 6 |
| Occupational social class | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 1 | 100 | [45]F | 1 |
| Income | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 2 | 100 | [39] [69]F | 0 | – | – | 2 |
| Material lifestyle | 2 | 100 | [45]M [45]F | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 2 |
| Fat Mass Index | |||||||||||||
| Education | 1 | 50 | [46]F | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 1 | 50 | [63] | 2 |
| Income | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 1 | 100 | [63] | 1 |
| Composite SEP | 1 | 50 | [60]M | 0 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 1 | 50 | [63] | 2 |
| Overall distribution of associations—fat measures combined | |||||||||||||
| Combined SEP | 11% | 44% | 17% | 28% | 75 | ||||||||
| HIC combined SEP | 0% | 59% | 19% | 22% | 54 | ||||||||
| MIC combined SEP | 38% | 5% | 14% | 43% | 21 | ||||||||
Positive associations indicate an increase in fat measure with an increase in socioeconomic advantage; inverse associations indicate a decrease in fat measure with an increase in socioeconomic advantage; non-linear associations indicate that the association between SEP and fat measures is either curvilinear or heterogeneous. Miscellaneous SEP measures are where less than two papers reported on the measure. Total N represents the total number of reported associations between the given SEP measure and the body composition measure (i.e., total number of associations reporting on education and FM). There may be two associations from one paper per SEP measure, if only gender-stratified data are presented. The N in the ‘direction of relation’ groups (i.e., positive, negative, non-linear, no association) refers to the number of associations reporting each patterning within the given SEP measure and body composition measure combination (i.e., number of positive associations reported between education and FM), and corresponds to the references included. The % in the ‘direction of relation’ groups indicates the number of associations reporting a particular patterning (i.e., positive) as a percentage of the total number of associations for the given SEP measure and body composition measure (i.e., education and FM).
FIndicates results for females only.
MIndicates results for males only.