RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Life-course social disparities in body mass index trajectories across adulthood: cohort study evidence from China Health and Nutrition Survey JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2022.08.23.505012 DO 10.1101/2022.08.23.505012 A1 Yusong Dang A1 Peixi Rong A1 Xinyu Duan A1 Mingxin Yan A1 Yaling Zhao A1 Baibing Mi A1 Jing Zhou A1 Yulong Chen A1 Duolao Wang A1 Leilei Pei YR 2022 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/08/25/2022.08.23.505012.abstract AB Background The social disparities in obesity may originate in early life and adult social class. There are various developmental trajectories of overweight/obesity in adulthood. It is unclear how the intergenerational mobility of socioeconomic status influences adult overweight/obesity in China.Methods We used longitudinal data from ten waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) between 1989 and 2015 for our analysis. The group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify BMI trajectories in adulthood. Multinomial logistic regression was adopted to assess the associations between SES and adult BMI trajectories.Results Among a total of 3,138 participants, three latent clusters, including normal-stable BMI (51.4%), progressive overweight group (39.8%), and progressive obesity group (8.8%), were identified. High father’s occupational position, high participants’ occupation position and educational attainment, respectively, were associated with greater obesity risk. Compared to a stable low life course SES trajectory, a stable high life course SES trajectory was associated with a 2.35-fold risk of obesity, and upward and downward social mobility trajectories increased the risk for overweight/obesity. Individuals in the highest relative to the lowest life course cumulative socioeconomic score group had around twice risk of obesity.Conclusions The results emphasize the role of the high SES in early life and life-course SES accumulation, in the obesity intervention in China.Funding All the work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 72174167, 81602928) and Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi (2021JM-031).Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.