In terms of health inequalities, obesity is undoubtedly one of the strongest social markers. This is once again revealed by the latest DREES report on the state of health of the French.
Are all children equal when it comes to obesity? To this question, the last report of the DREES (1) on the state of health of the population in France answers in the negative. These statisticians indeed display the following credo: “Tell me where you live, how much your parents earn, and I will tell you how much you weigh. “
More obese among the children of workers
The national health survey carried out in schools highlights strong social inequalities. These results reveal the ever higher prevalence of obesity among children whose fathers are “workers” than among those whose fathers are “managers”.
The proportion of obese children thus amounts respectively to 4.5% (for workers) against 1.2% (for executives) in the large nursery section, to 5.8% against 0.8% in CM2 and 5.5% against 1.6% in the 3rd class.
Territorial disparities
In addition, strong territorial disparities are also reported. Overweight and obesity more frequently affect land study and development zones (ZEAT) of the North and the East, as well as the Dom. The Mediterranean ZEAT also has high prevalence, in particular among adolescents in 3rd year classes. The West ZEAT appears to be more spared.
Other results from a previous study had shown that big heads make small weights. Thus, the most highly educated agglomerations, such as Boulogne-Billancourt (54%), are also the thinnest. Paris (54%) also achieves a good score on the scale. On the other hand, Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), which has a little less than 20% of higher education graduates, has a significant rate of overweight and obese people, underlines the daily.
More obesity and overweight in girls
As a result, 8.7% of students enrolled in kindergarten (5-6 years) in 2012-2013 were overweight and 3.5% were obese. At this age, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is higher for girls (9.7% and 3.8% respectively) than for boys (7.3% and 3.1%).
Surveys carried out in 2007-2008 among CM2 classes and adolescents in year 3 (2008-2009) report that, respectively, 14.8% and 13.7% were overweight and that obesity concerned 4.0 % and 3.9% of students. The differences by sex are not significant at these ages.
(1) Department of research, studies, evaluation and statistics
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