Browsing by Subject "Household income"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Socioeconomic status and dietary patterns in children from around the world: different associations by levels of country human development?
    (BioMed Central, 2017-05-16) Manyanga, Taru; Tremblay, Mark S; Chaput, Jean-Philippe; Katzmarzyk, Peter T; Fogelholm, Mikael; Hu, Gang; Kuriyan, Rebecca; Kurpad, Anura; Lambert, Estelle V; Maher, Carol; Maia, Jose; Matsudo, Victor; Olds, Timothy; Onywera, Vincent; Sarmiento, Olga L; Standage, Martyn; Tudor-Locke, Catrine; Zhao, Pei; Mikkila, Vera; Broyles, Stephanie T
    Background: Although ‘unhealthy’ diet is a well-known risk factor for non-communicable diseases, its relationship with socio-economic status (SES) has not been fully investigated. Moreover, the available research has largely been conducted in countries at high levels of human development. This is the first study to examine relationships among dietary patterns and SES of children from countries spanning a wide range of human development. Methods: This was a multinational cross-sectional study among 9–11 year-old children (n = 6808) from urban/ peri-urban sites across 12 countries. Self-reported food frequency questionnaires were used to determine the children’s dietary patterns. Principal Components Analysis was employed to create two component scores representing ‘unhealthy’ and ‘healthy’ dietary patterns. Multilevel models accounting for clustering at the school and site level were used to examine the relationships among dietary patterns and SES. Results: The mean age of participants in this study (53.7% girls) was 10.4 years. Largest proportions of total variance in dietary patterns occurred at the individual, site, and school levels (individual, school, site: 62.8%; 10.8%; 26.4% for unhealthy diet pattern (UDP) and 88.9%; 3.7%; 7.4%) for healthy diet pattern (HDP) respectively. There were significant negative ‘unhealthy’ diet-SES gradients in 7 countries and positive ‘healthy’ diet-SES gradients in 5. Within country diet-SES gradients did not significantly differ by HDI. Compared to participants in the highest SES groups, unhealthy diet pattern scores were significantly higher among those in the lowest within-country SES groups in 8 countries: odds ratios for Australia (2.69; 95% CI: 1.33–5.42), Canada (4.09; 95% CI: 2.02–8.27), Finland (2.82; 95% CI: 1.27–6.22), USA (4.31; 95% CI: 2.20–8.45), Portugal (2.09; 95% CI: 1.06–4.11), South Africa (2.77; 95% CI: 1.22–6.28), India (1.88; 95% CI: 1.12–3.15) and Kenya (3.35; 95% CI: 1.91–5.87). Conclusions: This study provides evidence of diet-SES gradients across all levels of human development and that lower within-country SES is strongly related to unhealthy dietary patterns. Consistency in within-country diet-SES gradients suggest that interventions and public health strategies aimed at improving dietary patterns among children may be similarly employed globally. However, future studies should seek to replicate these findings in more representative samples extended to more rural representation.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Socioeconomic status and dietary patterns in children from around the world: different associations by levels of country human development?
    (2017) Manyanga, Taru; Tremblay, Mark S; Chaput, Jean-Philippe; Katzmarzyk, Peter T; Fogelholm, Mikael; Hu, Gang; Kuriyan, Rebecca; Kurpad, Anura; Lambert, Estelle V; Maher, Carol; Maia, José; Matsudo, Victor; Olds, Timothy; Onywera, Vincent; Sarmiento, Olga L; Standage, Martyn; Tudor-Locke, Catrine; Zhao, Pei; Mikkila, Vera; Broyles, Stephanie T
    Abstract Background Although ‘unhealthy’ diet is a well-known risk factor for non-communicable diseases, its relationship with socio-economic status (SES) has not been fully investigated. Moreover, the available research has largely been conducted in countries at high levels of human development. This is the first study to examine relationships among dietary patterns and SES of children from countries spanning a wide range of human development. Methods This was a multinational cross-sectional study among 9–11 year-old children (n = 6808) from urban/peri-urban sites across 12 countries. Self-reported food frequency questionnaires were used to determine the children’s dietary patterns. Principal Components Analysis was employed to create two component scores representing ‘unhealthy’ and ‘healthy’ dietary patterns. Multilevel models accounting for clustering at the school and site level were used to examine the relationships among dietary patterns and SES. Results The mean age of participants in this study (53.7% girls) was 10.4 years. Largest proportions of total variance in dietary patterns occurred at the individual, site, and school levels (individual, school, site: 62.8%; 10.8%; 26.4% for unhealthy diet pattern (UDP) and 88.9%; 3.7%; 7.4%) for healthy diet pattern (HDP) respectively. There were significant negative ‘unhealthy’ diet-SES gradients in 7 countries and positive ‘healthy’ diet-SES gradients in 5. Within country diet-SES gradients did not significantly differ by HDI. Compared to participants in the highest SES groups, unhealthy diet pattern scores were significantly higher among those in the lowest within-country SES groups in 8 countries: odds ratios for Australia (2.69; 95% CI: 1.33–5.42), Canada (4.09; 95% CI: 2.02–8.27), Finland (2.82; 95% CI: 1.27–6.22), USA (4.31; 95% CI: 2.20–8.45), Portugal (2.09; 95% CI: 1.06–4.11), South Africa (2.77; 95% CI: 1.22–6.28), India (1.88; 95% CI: 1.12–3.15) and Kenya (3.35; 95% CI: 1.91–5.87). Conclusions This study provides evidence of diet-SES gradients across all levels of human development and that lower within-country SES is strongly related to unhealthy dietary patterns. Consistency in within-country diet-SES gradients suggest that interventions and public health strategies aimed at improving dietary patterns among children may be similarly employed globally. However, future studies should seek to replicate these findings in more representative samples extended to more rural representation.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    Wealth is health: the relationship between household income, physical health and mental wellbeing in South Africa
    (2025) Leon, Nicholas; Meyer, Ines
    Healthier employees contribute to greater productivity at the individual, but also organisational level as healthier employees tend to be more productive, less frequently absent from work and more socially engaged. Organisations should thus have an interest in promoting their employees' mental and physical health. One contributor to health are the financial means which an individual has available to support their health. Through the remuneration provided, employers have a direct influence over this variable. To assess in how far remuneration relates to physical and mental health in the current South African working population and if so, what income would be required to sustain good health, this dissertation investigated the relationship between household income, physical health and mental wellbeing. Using secondary data from the South African Research Chair Initiative's (SARChI) National Living Wage Study, this study examined whether and how household income is associated with an individual's perceived ability to maintain physical health and mental wellbeing as well as individuals' self-rated physical health. Guided by the absolute income hypothesis, which suggests that higher income leads to greater health, the study employed a cross-sectional, quantitative and descriptive design with a sample size of N = 1,665 participants across South Africa's nine provinces who provided survey data between November 2023 and January 2024. Statistical analyses revealed a significant relationship between household income and the three health indicators, demonstrating that higher household income was associated with a better perceived ability to maintain physical health and mental wellbeing alongside better self-rated physical health. A key contribution of this research is the identification of a household income threshold (ZAR 11,850) required for individuals to sustain their physical health and mental wellbeing. Given the documented relationship between employee health and organisational performance, this income threshold provides actionable insights for organisations aiming to improve employee health and organisational performance. By identifying this income threshold, this study contributes a novel insight into the income-health literature, offering a practical foundation for fostering healthier workplaces and better-performing organisations.