Social class interacts with the association between macronutrient intake and subcutaneous fat.
BACKGROUND
A large amount of evidence shows that adiposity is associated both with macronutrient composition of the habitual diet and socio-economic variables. Since dietary habits may covariate with social status, these two groups of factors may act as mutual confounders when studying their independent impact on adiposity.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the independent relationship between educational level and dietary habits with adiposity. To study interactive effects of educational level on the association between macronutrient intake and adiposity.


METHODS
This cross-sectional study was based on dietary records, interviews and anthropometry of 358 men and 368 women of the Québec Family Study.


METHODS
Partial correlation analyses were applied to clarify independent correlations of body fatness with educational level, dietary habits and other behavioural factors. ANCOVA was used to detect interactive effects of educational level on macronutrient versus adiposity relationships.


RESULTS
Inverse associations between educational level and BMI, percent body fat, truncal skinfolds were found in women but not in men. Both protein and lipid intake correlated or tended to correlate positively with some of the adiposity measures in women. Protein intake correlated positively with truncal skinfolds in men of lower but not higher educational level.


CONCLUSIONS
The results emphasize the importance of including demographic variables like social status in surveys dealing with the relationships between adiposity and dietary habits.
Buemann
B
B
Physical Activity Sciences Laboratory, PEPS, Laval University, Ste-Foy, Québec, Canada.
Tremblay
A
A
Bouchard
C
C
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012885:Skinfold Thickness; D012923:Social Class