title: Social Patterning in Adiposity in Adolescence: Prospective Observations from the Chinese Birth Cohort ''Children of 1997''.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Low early life socio-economic position is more strongly associated with adiposity among women than men. We examined whether the sex difference of social patterning in general and central adiposity exists before adulthood.
  
  
  METHODS
  In Hong Kong's "Children of 1997" birth cohort, we used multivariable regression to examine the association of parental education, a marker of early life socio-economic position, with body mass index (BMI) (n = 7252, 88% follow-up) and waist-height ratio (n = 5636, 68% follow-up), at 14 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parental education of Grade 9 or below, compared to Grade 12 or above, was associated with higher waist-height ratio z-score particularly in girls (0.30, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.19, 0.41) compared to boys (0.12, 95% CI 0.02, 0.22) (p for sex interaction = 0.02). Lower parental education was associated with greater BMI z-score in adolescents of locally born mothers, but not adolescents of migrant mothers, with no difference by sex.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Different social patterning in different markers of adiposity may imply different sociological and biological mediating pathways. A stronger association between low early life socio-economic position and waist-height ratio in adolescent girls may indicate sex-specific influences of SEP related early life exposures on central adiposity.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Hui
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
authors.forename: Gabriel M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.|CUNY School of Public Health and Hunter College, New York City, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: C Mary
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Schooling
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity; D000293:Adolescent; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D012923:Social Class; D065927:Waist-Height Ratio