"Socioeconomic status accounts for a large proportion of the disease burden within the whole population," say researchers Elizabeth Goodman, M.D., from Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass., and colleagues from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "To understand youth health and behaviors, the context in which youth live must be considered."
The study appears in the November issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
"Obesity and depression represent critical public health problems for today's youth, because both are highly prevalent chronic diseases that track into adulthood," Goodman says.
The researchers used 1994 household income data and parents' educational attainment from the families of 15,112 adolescents, surveyed as part of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Goodman's group applied a standard measure of depression and calculated body mass index from the teenagers' height and weight to determine obesity.
Lower family income accounted for 26 percent of depression and 32 percent of obesity among these adolescents. Forty percent of depression and 39 percent of obesity was attributable to lower parental education.
The researchers observed that the effect of lower parental education was stronger than that of income for both depression and obesity.
"Education's effect may relate more to differences in coping styles and other interpersonal skills, whereas income's effect may be more strongly associated with material goods and services," Goodman suggests.
This study was supported in part by a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation, and based on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add-Health).
BY AARON LEVIN, SCIENCE WRITER
HEALTH BEHAVIOR NEWS SERVICE
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American Journal of Public Health