title: Accumulation of childhood poverty on young adult overweight or obese status: race/ethnicity and gender disparities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Childhood poverty is positively correlated with overweight status during childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Repeated exposure of childhood poverty could contribute to race/ethnicity and gender disparities in young adult overweight/obese (OV/OB) weight status.
  
  
  METHODS
  Young adults born between 1980 and 1990 who participated in the Young Adult file of the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth were examined (N=3901). The accumulation of childhood poverty is captured via poverty exposure from each survey year from the prenatal year through age 18 years. Body mass index was calculated and categorised into the reference criteria for adults outlined by the Center for Disease Control. Logistic regression models were stratified by race/ethnicity and included a term interacting poverty and gender, along with a number of covariates, including various longitudinal socioeconomic status measures and indicators for the intergenerational transmission of economic disadvantage and body weight.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Reoccurring exposure to childhood poverty was positively related to OV/OB for white, black and Hispanic young adult women and inversely related for white young adult men. A direct relationship between the accumulation of childhood poverty and OV/OB was not found for black and Hispanic young adult men.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Helping families move out of poverty may improve the long-term health status of white, black and Hispanic female children as young adults. Community area interventions designed to change impoverished community environments and assist low-income families reduce family level correlates of poverty may help to reduce the weight disparities observed in young adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Performance, Texas Obesity Research Center, University of Houston, , Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Daphne C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Hernandez
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pressler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D011203:Poverty / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Ethnicity; Gender; Lifecourse / Childhood Circumstances; Obesity; Poverty