Socioeconomic status and obesity in Cairo, Egypt: A heavy burden for all

Mona Mowafi; Zeinab Khadr; Ichiro Kawachi; S.V. Subramanian; Allan Hill; Gary G. Bennett

doi:10.1016/j.jegh.2013.09.001

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Volume 4, Issue 1, March 2014, Pages 13 - 21

Socioeconomic status and obesity in Cairo, Egypt: A heavy burden for all

Authors

Mona Mowafi^a^{, *}^,mmowafi@post.harvard.edu, Zeinab Khadr^b, Ichiro Kawachi^a, S.V. Subramanian^a, Allan Hill^c, Gary G. Bennett^d

^aHarvard School of Public Health, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States

^bAmerican University in Cairo, Social Research Center, AUC Ave., P.O. Box 74, New Cairo 11835, Egypt

^cHarvard School of Public Health, Department of Global Health and Population, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States

^dDuke University, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Box 90086, Durham, NC 27708, United States

^*Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 703 362 8266.

Corresponding Author

Mona Mowafimmowafi@post.harvard.edu

Received 8 November 2012, Revised 13 August 2013, Accepted 1 September 2013, Available Online 16 October 2013.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jegh.2013.09.001 How to use a DOI?
Keywords: Social epidemiology; Health inequities; Socioeconomic status; Obesity; Egypt
Abstract: Studies have generally shown a positive association between socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity in low-income countries, but few have tested this relationship in the Middle East where obesity prevalence is extraordinarily high and the nutrition profile more closely resembles developed world contexts. The objective of this study is to examine the SES-obesity association in Cairo, Egypt.

Multinomial regression analyses were conducted and predicted probabilities were found for overweight and obesity status among adult men and women in a stratified analysis. Data were taken from the 2007 Cairo Urban Inequity Study which collected information on 3993 individuals from 50 neighborhoods in the Cairo Governorate. Five different measures of SES were utilized – education, household expenditures, household assets, subjective wealth, and father’s education. No significant associations were found between most measures of SES and overweight/obesity in this population. Overweight and obesity are prevalent across the SES spectrum.

These findings suggest that obesity programs and policies should be targeted at all SES groups in Cairo, although specific mechanisms may vary by SES and should be explored further in future studies.
Open Access: This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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Journal: Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
Volume-Issue: 4 - 1
Pages: 13 - 21
Publication Date: 2013/10/16
ISSN (Online): 2210-6014
ISSN (Print): 2210-6006
DOI: 10.1016/j.jegh.2013.09.001 How to use a DOI?
Open Access: This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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ris enw bib

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Mona Mowafi
AU  - Zeinab Khadr
AU  - Ichiro Kawachi
AU  - S.V. Subramanian
AU  - Allan Hill
AU  - Gary G. Bennett
PY  - 2013
DA  - 2013/10/16
TI  - Socioeconomic status and obesity in Cairo, Egypt: A heavy burden for all
JO  - Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
SP  - 13
EP  - 21
VL  - 4
IS  - 1
SN  - 2210-6014
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2013.09.001
DO  - 10.1016/j.jegh.2013.09.001
ID  - Mowafi2013
ER  -

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