Associations between household income, height, and BMI in contemporary US schoolchildren

作者：Murasko Jason E^*

来源：Economics and Human Biology, 2013, 11(2): 185-196.

DOI：10.1016/j.ehb.2011.09.001

• Adolescent
• BMI
• Children
• Growth
• Height
• Income

This paper evaluates the association between income and physical development in a nationally representative sample of contemporary US schoolchildren followed from kindergarten to eighth grade (average ages of 6-14). A generalized linear mixed modeling framework is used to evaluate height and body mass index (BMI) as both levels and annualized growth in a pooled sample. Contemporary US schoolchildren show income variation in height that is significant but modest at around .1 cm (in kindergarten) to A cm (eighth grade) increases per doubling of income. An exception is found for Hispanic children who show faster height velocity associated with higher income through childhood yielding a 1.0 cm increase per doubling of income by the eighth grade. All groups except black males show a negative relationship between income and BMI that becomes stronger with age with an average .8 kg/m(2) lower BMI per doubling of income by the eighth grade. These results are robust to the inclusion of baseline anthropometric controls. The analysis suggests that higher-income US schoolchildren enter mid-adolescence as taller but with lower proportional body mass relative to their lower-income counterparts.

• 出版日期2013-3