Growing up in Australia: paradox of overweight/obesity in children of immigrants from low-and-middle -income countries

T. Zulfiqar*, L. Strazdins, C. Banwell, H. Dinh, C. D'Este

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    12 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Objective: Children of immigrants from low-and-middle-income countries show excess overweight/obesity risk relative to host populations, possibly due to socioeconomic disadvantage. The present study was conducted to estimate overweight/obesity prevalence and its association with the family socioeconomic-position in 2–11-year-old Australian-born children of immigrants and Australian-mothers. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of 10-year data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children was undertaken. Overweight/obesity was defined according to the International Obesity Taskforce, age-and sex-specific BMI cut-off-points. Results: Approximately 24% children aged 2–3 years (22% sons, and 25% daughters), were overweight/obese with no significant difference between children of immigrants and Australian-mothers. Overweight/obesity prevalence consistently increased with age for sons of mothers from low-and-middle-income countries but not daughters. Adjusting for the family socioeconomic-position did not explain excess overweight/obesity in children of mothers from low-and-middle-income countries. The odds of overweight/obesity in sons were significantly higher at 8–9 years (OR 1.5; p = 0.03) and 10–11 years (OR 1.5; p = 0.03) and in daughters at 4–5 years (OR 1.7; p = 0.002) when the mothers were from low-and-middle-income countries. Conclusion: Excess weight in children of immigrants is not due to socioeconomic disadvantage alone. Other social processes and interactions between immigrants and host cultures may be involved.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)178-187
    Number of pages10
    JournalObesity Science and Practice
    Volume4
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Apr 2018

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