The role of childhood obesity in socioeconomic inequalities in young adolescents’ mental health: Differential exposure or differential impact?

The low education and low-income groups had a higher prevalence of high body fat percentage and higher mean internalizing and externalizing symptoms scores at age 13 than the high education and income groups. [...] It provides a descriptive illustration of the association between body fat and internalizing and externalizing symptoms within each education or income group (represented by the height of the bars; indicative for differential impact) as well as the prevalence of body fat percentage within each education or income group (represented by the width of the bars; indicative of differential exposure). [...] 0.24 (95%CI 0.09, 0.46) points and 0.09 (95%CI 0.02, 0.19) points of the total disparity in internalizing symptoms in the low compared to high and middle compared to high income group can be attributed to differential exposure, corresponding to 14% and 8% respectively. [...] 1 Estimated total disparity (TD) of education and household income, 4-way decomposition of TD, and contribution of differential impact or exposure to Q4 fat mass (>30%) to inequalities in internalizing and externalizing problems. [...] 2 Estimated total disparity (TD) of education and household income, 4-way decomposition of TD, and contribution of differential impact or exposure to Q4 fat mass (>30%) to inequalities in internalizing and externalizing problems by gender.