Social gradients in obesity Essay

To go deeper, wrong nutrition is associated with easily accessible and palatable diet, while lack of physical activity is associated with increased reliance on motor vehicles, mechanized manufacturing and labour-saving technologies in households. As Asthana and Halliday (2006, p. 287) warn, “modern epidemic of fatness stems from the sedentary, sofa-lounging, fat-guzzling conditions of contemporary society.” On the one hand, the risk rises when the dietary energy supply (food available for human consumption, expressed in kilocalories per capita per day) grows, as it is in developed countries. In the United States, the highest availability per person was 3,754 (in 2003) and in the European Union in late 1990s there were 3,394 calories per person. In Asian developing countries the rate was 2,648 and in sub-Saharan Africa it was 2,176 calories per capita (Puhl and Brownell, 2001 p. 789). There is an evidence of relation of total calorie consumption to obesity. As Asthana and Halliday (2006, p. 285) stipulate, “Evidence of variations in diet according to socio-economic status, together with growing knowledge about the implications of poor diet in childhood for both proximate and long-term health, makes this an important area for health inequalities research and policy.”
The disturbing point is that in the United States as well as in Europe, there were certain agricultural policies subsidizing corn, wheat, soy and rice. Thus, their prices are now lower than those of fruits and vegetables, and consequently fruit and vegetables are less affordable compared to other foods. It has been estimated that only 30% of adults consume necessary 5 portions (daily norm) of fruit and vegetables (Cummins and Macintyre, 2006 p. 101). On the other hand, in developed countries the representatives of high social class are less predisposed to obesity, as they have access to healthier diet with more nutritious products and facilities that provide them with more physical activity (fitness); after all, they are “under greater social pressure to remain slim” (Neovius, 2009 p. 18). One review in 1989, for example, revealed that women of a high social class in developed countries were less likely to be obese, while “the proportion of total energy derived from starch was higher for children living in socially disadvantaged households” (Asthana and Halliday, 2006 p. 287). “As in other high-income countries, in England, obesity is associated with social and economic deprivation across all age ranges and is becoming increasingly common,” Marmot et al. (2010) states. Still, Macintyre and Mutrie (2004, as cite4d in Asthana and Halliday, 2006 p. 289) insist some evidence suggesting that “children from lower social classes are more likely to engage in sports and active play.” At the same time in developing countries excessive weight is often the indicator of welfare and wealth (in other words, larger body size is favoured there), therefore, high social classes there have greater rates of obesity, and the poor are less likely to be obese as they eat less and work hard physically. One way or another, levels of obesity in both adults and children are correlated with income inequality. One more uneasy issue that in high-inequality societies, the representatives of the lowest social classes often do not feel enough incentive and confidence to plan for the long term future, and consequently they end up living with worse health when they get older. “Poverty in high-inequality society is spatially associated with factors that make healthy living more difficult: a lack of quality food outlets and green spaces” (Babones, 2009 p. 3). That is why people who are at the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder have to work harder to achieve the same level of health as people of high socioeconomic status. Epidemiological research on health inequalities and the social determinants of health has demonstrated that the quality of the social environment has powerful effects on health (Wilkinson, 2005 p. 33). The association between obesity and social disadvantage is evident. By 1997 review, obesity was much higher in social classes IV and V. As Goodman et al. (2003, p. 1020) remark, “stress and perceived low social status appear to increase risk of obesity.”
What is more, urbanization is another essential factor that contributes to the growth of obesity rates in the developing countries. Obviously, social structures in which people are embedded condition the environmental factors as well. Environmental pollution is also one of the obesogenic factors contributing to unhealthy lifestyles. The effects of life-course influences are more apparent on objective rather than on self-reported measures of health (Graham, 2009 p. 92).