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Department of Nutrition and Center for Epidemiological Studies in Health and Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil and * Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, UNC-CH and Fellow, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
2To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed at University of São Paulo, Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Ave. Dr. Arnaldo, 715-01246-904 São Paulo, Brazil. E-mail: carlosam{at}usp.br.
With a view to assess the independent effects of income and education
on the risk of obesity we studied cross-sectional randomly selected
samples of the adult population (20 y and over) living in 1996/97 in
the less (northeastern) and the more (southeastern) developed region of
Brazil (1971 and 2588 northeastern and 2289 and 2549 southeastern men
and women, respectively). Independent effects of income and education
on obesity (BMI 
30 kg/m2) were assessed through
logistic regression analyses that controlled for age, ethnicity,
household setting (urban or rural) and either education or income. The
risk of obesity in men strongly increased with income in the two
regions. The level of education did not influence the risk of male
obesity in the less developed region but, in the more developed one,
better-educated men had slightly less chance to be obese. In the
less developed region obesity in women was strongly associated with
both income (direct association) and education (inverse association).
In the more developed region only the women’s education influenced the
risk of obesity, and the association between the two variables was
inverse and strong as in the less developed region. Findings from this
study reveal a scenario that is far from what has been generally
admitted for the social distribution of obesity in the developing
countries. They indicate that in transition societies income tends to
be a risk factor for obesity, whereas education tends to be protective
and that both gender and level of economic development are relevant
modifiers of the influence exerted by these variables.
KEY WORDS: • income • education • obesity • Brazil
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