Childhood obesity is linked with disadvantage, a new paper shows. Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds are nearly four times more likely to be obese throughout childhood than the most affluent.

This research was led by Professor Melissa Wake, Director of Research at the Royal Children’s Hospital Centre for Community Child Health and paediatrician and professor at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.

“Clearly targeting children with early overweight and low socioeconomic background, particularly those from socially disadvantaged families, must be a top intervention priority,” says Melissa.

However Melissa cautions against focusing just on socially disadvantaged families, saying that only whole whole-society approaches will eliminate overweight-associated morbidity.

Read more in recent media stories in The Conversation and The Age, and the full original paper in open-access site PLOS ONE.

For media enquiries please contact Simone Myers, Media and Communications Officer at Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, M: 0407 852 335