SEARCHCOHORTpediatrics, epidemiology

cohort·pediatrics, epidemiology, public health, endocrinology, cardiology·PMC10066473

Socioeconomic inequalities in paediatric metabolic syndrome: mediation by parental health literacy

The European Journal of Public Health · 4 authors, 5 centres

AI SUMMARY

FIDELITY 100%

This summary was generated by AI from a single paper. It has not been reviewed by a clinician and is not clinical advice. Verify against the source before acting on it.

AGENT 01 · STRUCTURED SUMMARY

TRACE TO SOURCE

“

TL;DR

Parental health literacy partially mediated these associations, accounting for a small portion of the total effect.

Full summary

763 CHARS

Using natural effects models, the authors found that higher parental SES (higher education, income, and occupation) was associated with slightly lower cMetS scores in children, with the largest effect from education. Parental health literacy partially mediated these pathways, accounting for 6.7% (education), 11.8% (income), and 8.3% (occupation) of the total effect. The study's strengths include its large, community-based sample and use of causal mediation analysis. Limitations include potential bias from loss to follow-up and a health literacy measure focused on functional literacy. The findings suggest socioeconomic inequalities in paediatric MetS are relatively small, and improving parental health literacy may only modestly reduce these inequalities.

STUDY TYPE

cohort

SPECIALTY

pediatrics

SUMMARISED BY

AI pipeline

FIDELITY CHECK

100% · A

ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10066473

Socioeconomic inequalities in paediatric metabolic syndrome: mediation by parental health literacy

The European Journal of Public Health

READ THE FULL PAPER

ABSTRACT

Abstract Background Parental health literacy may explain the relationship between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and paediatric metabolic syndrome (MetS). For this reason, we assessed to what extent parental health literacy mediates the relationships between parental SES and paediatric MetS. Methods We used data from the prospective multigenerational Dutch Lifelines Cohort Study. Our sample consisted of 6683 children with an average follow-up of 36.2 months (SD 9.3) and a mean baseline age of 12.8 years (SD 2.6). We used natural effects models to assess the natural direct, natural indirect and total effects of parental SES on MetS. Results On average, an additional 4 years of parental education, e.g. university instead of secondary school, would lead to continuous MetS (cMetS) scores that were 0.499 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.364–0.635) units lower, which is a small effect ( d : 0.18). If parental income and occupational level were 1 SD higher, on average cMetS scores were 0.136 (95% CI: 0.052–0.219) and 0.196 (95% CI: 0.108–0.284) units lower, respectively; these are both small effects ( d : 0.05 and 0.07, respectively). Parental health literacy partially mediated these pathways; it accounted for 6.7% (education), 11.8% (income) and 8.3% (occupation) of the total effect of parental SES on paediatric MetS. Conclusions Socioeconomic differences in paediatric MetS are relatively small, the largest being by parental education. Improving parental health literacy may reduce these inequalities. Further research is needed into the mediating role of parental health literacy on other socioeconomic health inequalities in children.

CITATION EXPORT

Alexander Lepe, Marlou L A de Kroon, Sijmen A Reijneveld et al.. Socioeconomic inequalities in paediatric metabolic syndrome: mediation by parental health literacy. The European Journal of Public Health. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad028

AUTHORS

4 · 5 CENTRES

Alexander Lepe, Marlou L A de Kroon, Sijmen A Reijneveld, Andrea F de Winter

Department of Health Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Department of Health Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Centre Environment & Health, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Department of Health Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Department of Health Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands