Obesity epidemic threatens health of all social groups equally

It is often assumed that those on low incomes and with low levels of education are overly represented in the major increase in obesity of recent decades. A new thesis from the Lund University School of Economics and Management, Sweden, shows that obesity is increasing across all social groups and that we need to look at factors other than socioeconomic status to understand and solve one of the major public health concerns of the Western world. Åsa Ljungvall, a researcher in economics at the Lund University School of Economics and Management, has studied the increase in numbers of people who are overweight or obese over recent decades in Sweden and the US. "My studies show that the increase in the problem of obesity is taking place across a broad front in all socioeconomic groups. So even if there are differences between different levels of education and income, people are affected fairly evenly by the increase - sometimes even in ways that reduce inequality between the groups. The obesity epidemic is taking place independently of socioeconomic status and affects people more equally than we have previously thought", says Åsa Ljungvall. Even if the average waist measurement of a Swede is less than that of an average American, Åsa Ljungvall's comparative studies indicate similarities.