title: Relationship between socioeconomic variables and obesity in Korean adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite the importance of obesity and its association with socioeconomic status, little is known about this condition in Korean adolescents. We examined the relationship between obesity in Korean adolescents and several socioeconomic variables and compared the association of obesity with conventional and subjective indicators of socioeconomic status.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study comprised 60 643 Korean adolescents aged 12 to 18 years who participated in the 2007 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey. The dependent variable, obesity, and the independent variables of parental education levels, family affluence scale, subjective family economic status, and subjective school achievement were collected by using a self-administered anonymous questionnaire. Data on behavioral and psychological characteristics were also collected and used as confounding factors. Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to identify associations between socioeconomic status and obesity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the descriptive analysis, adolescents with low parental education, low family affluence level, low subjective family economic status, and low subjective school achievement were more likely to be obese. However, after controlling for other risk factors in multivariate analysis, only the associations with subjective family economic status and subjective school achievement remained statistically significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results provide further evidence that the prevalent pattern of obesity in Korean adolescents-i.e., the inverse relationship between obesity and socioeconomic status-is similar to that in developed countries. In addition, these findings support the hypothesis that, as compared with objective socioeconomic status, subjective social status is more closely related to obesity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: In-Hwan
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Youngtae
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: So-Youn
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Changmo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Bong-Keun
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Choe
authors.forename: Joong-Myung
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Tai-Young
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Yoon
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires