Explaining gender inequalities in overweight people: a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis in northern Sweden

• Published in: International Journal for Equity in Health
• Main Authors: Fethi Mohammed Yusuf, Miguel San Sebastián, Masoud Vaezghasemi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2023
• Subjects: Sweden; Overweight; Obesity; Gender; Inequalities; Oaxaca decomposition; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-023-01973-9; https://doaj.org/article/5f4aa8637b294d1fb6971d6f1497dbc8

Abstract Background Being overweight and obesity are considered serious public health concerns worldwide. At the population level, factors contributing to overweight as well as the differences in overweight between men and women in terms of prevalence or associated factors are relatively well-known. What is less known is what explains the inequalities in overweight between men and women. In this study, we examined the contribution of material, behavioural, and psychosocial factors in explaining the gender differences in overweight among adults in northern Sweden. Methods This study was based on the 2018 Swedish Health on Equal Terms survey, which was carried out in Sweden’s four northernmost regions. The analytical sample consisted of 20,855 participants (47% men) aged 20–84 years. Overweight (including obesity) was the outcome, and the selected explanatory variables were grouped according to three theoretical perspectives: material, behavioural and psychosocial. Descriptive statistics and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition were applied for analysing the data. Results Our study showed that the prevalence of overweight was 64% and 52% among men and women, respectively. It, therefore, revealed a gender gap in overweight people of 11.7% points with explanatory factors accounting for 39% of that gap. This gender gap in overweight people was mostly explained by behavioural variables (19.3%), followed by the materialistic variables and age accounting for 16.2% and 3.1%, respectively. Specifically, having low education, being in the lowest income quintile, alcohol drinking and snus usage contributed to explain 8.4%, 8.9%, 2.8% and 6.3% of the gender difference, respectively. Conclusions We found a considerable gender inequality in overweight between men and women. The findings highlight that future overweight prevention initiatives would benefit from targeting the uncovered contributing factors to reduce gender inequalities in overweight people.