How socioeconomic status affects weight status through health-related lifestyles: a latent class analysis.

This article investigates how socioeconomic status (SES), measured by educational attainment and occupational social class, influences obesity through the clustering of health-related lifestyles (HRLs) involving diet and physical activity in Spanish adults aged 18–64. Using latent class analysis on data from four national health surveys (2006–2017; n=61,768), six distinct lifestyle clusters were identified separately for men and women, with men more frequently in unhealthier clusters. SES was inversely associated with obesity, and healthier lifestyle clusters partially mediated this relationship, explaining approximately 2–5% of the SES-obesity association, with a stronger mediation effect observed in men. The study concludes that while HRLs contribute to the social gradient in obesity, other factors related to SES also play significant roles, suggesting that future interventions should consider additional mediators beyond diet and physical activity.