Educational mobility and weight gain over 13 years in a longitudinal study of young women

BMC Public Health

Table 2 Baseline weight and weight gain ^* over 13 years by highest education ^† in 1973–78 cohort ALSWH women (n = 9 573)**

	% weighted (unweighted)	Model 1 Estimate (95% CI)	Model 2 Estimate (95% CI)
Baseline weight (kg)		60.51 (60.06, 60.97)	58.89 (58.11, 59.68)
Difference in baseline weight by highest achieved education ^†
High	51.3 (46.9)	Reference	Reference
Intermediate	29.5 (31.1)	2.48 (1.87, 3.08)	1.67 (1.08, 2.26)
Low	19.3 (22.0)	2.63 (1.93, 3.33)	1.70 (1.00, 2.39)
Increase per year (kg)		0.82 (0.77, 0.87)	1.18 (1.12, 1.24)
Difference in increase per year by highest achieved education ^†
High		Reference	Reference
Intermediate		0.24 (0.19, 0.28)	0.23 (0.19, 0.28)
Low		0.29 (0.24, 0.35)	0.27 (0.22, 0.33)
Attenuation per year (time*time)		-0.02 (-0.26,-0.20)	-0.05 (-0.06, -0.05)

^*Random effects models (intercept and slope) with weight measured at age 18–23 years, 22–27 years, 25–30 years, 28–33 years and 31–36 years.
^†Education achieved at Survey Five (Low - higher school certificate or lower (≤12 years), Intermediate - trade/certificate/diploma, High - degree/higher degree).
**Sample slightly smaller than the 10,018 women who had a value for highest achieved education, due to missing values for some covariates.
Model 1 – Baseline centred age, baseline centred height and area of residence.
Model 2- Model 1 + country of birth, physical activity, alcohol intake, mental health, income management, self-rated health, age at first birth, living arrangements, marital status, shape dissatisfaction.

ISSN: 1471-2458