Wealthy (Higher Income) Group are more Overweighed

According to a novel study, rich men are more likely to be overweight than men of middle or lower income group.

Researchers from Department of Sociology, University of Montreal, Canada found that wealthy men constantly increase their chances of being overweight as they keep on earning more.

Nathalie Dumas, graduate student, University of Montreal and lead study researcher was quoted in Sindh Today as saying, “Many epidemiological studies have established that the odds of being overweight or obese decrease as family income increases.”

“But we don’t know why this relationship is inverted for Canadian men. According to the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), the richer they are, the fatter they are,” added Dumas.

Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations.

Study details

The research team evaluated data of a previous study conducted in 2004 by CCHS.

The CCHS study was based on records of information collected from 7,000 adults in the age group 25 to 65.

After analyzing the data, researchers found that since 1980s a significant increase in obesity levels has been seen among wealthy Canadian and Korean men.

Though the research team is still finding out the appropriate reason, they assumed that it could possibly be due to people’s fondness of ‘eating out’ which in turn, affects their belly.

According to researchers, people who often eat out are not able to control their calorie-intake with not only the food but large amounts of alcohol too.

Besides, reduced physical activity could be another reason for increasing obesity.

Dumas was quoted in The Times of India as saying, “There are obviously various factors at play, we still haven’t empirically proved them.”

Other findings of the study

Comparing the study results of men with those of women, researchers found that women also had the same correlation but findings needed to be confirmed.

“However, women from rich households are less likely to be obese than women of middle or lower income,” The Times of India cited Dumas as saying.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), by 2030, 2.3 billion people will be overweight and 700 million will be obese.

The study findings were presented at the annual conference of Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS).