title: Can the relationship between ethnicity and obesity-related behaviours among school-aged children be explained by deprivation? A cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  It is unclear whether cultural differences or material disadvantage explain the ethnic patterning of obesogenic behaviours. The aim of this study was to examine ethnicity as a predictor of obesity-related behaviours among children in England, and to assess whether the effects of ethnicity could be explained by deprivation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five primary care trusts in England, 2010-2011.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parents of white, black and South Asian children aged 4-5 and 10-11 years participating in the National Child Measurement Programme (n=2773).
  
  
  METHODS
  Parent-reported measures of child behaviour: low level of physical activity, excessive screen time, unhealthy dietary behaviours and obesogenic lifestyle (combination of all three obesity-related behaviours). Associations between these behaviours and ethnicity were assessed using logistic regression analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  South Asian ethnic groups made up 22% of the sample, black ethnic groups made up 8%. Compared with white children, higher proportions of Asian and black children were overweight or obese (21-27% vs16% of white children), lived in the most deprived areas (24-47% vs 14%) and reported obesity-related behaviours (38% with obesogenic lifestyle vs 16%). After adjusting for deprivation and other sociodemographic characteristics, black and Asian children were three times more likely to have an obesogenic lifestyle than white children (OR 3.0, 95% CI 2.1 to 4.2 for Asian children; OR 3.4, 95% CI 2.7 to 4.3 for black children).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Children from Asian and black ethnic groups are more likely to have obesogenic lifestyles than their white peers. These differences are not explained by deprivation. Culturally specific lifestyle interventions may be required to reduce obesity-related health inequalities.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Catherine L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Falconer
authors.forename: Min Hae
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Croker
authors.forename: Anthony S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Kessel
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saxena
authors.forename: Russell M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Viner
authors.forename: Sanjay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kinra
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People; D044383:Black People; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000209:etiology; D011203:Poverty; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D044465:White People
keywords: Preventive Medicine; Social Medicine