In high-income countries, underweight is largely ignored in health research, despite a clear link with worse health and higher mortality risk. But in the UK, where changes to welfare policy have been accompanied by an explosion in foodbank use, social differences in underweight must be reassessed. This project will be the first comprehensive investigation of present-day inequalities in low body weight in Britain. Considering adults, children and adolescents, we will describe the extent of inequalities, and identify the most vulnerable groups. We will shed light on causes, by comparing inequalities in present-day UK with inequalities in other policy contexts: the UK in the 1990s and 2000s, and Norway from the 1980s to the present day.
Starkly raised risk of underweight was recently found among British adult jobseekers, and higher risk of thinness among younger disadvantaged children. Reported after substantial changes to welfare policy, it is not clear if such inequalities existed before those changes, if similar patterns are seen in other countries, or which other disadvantaged groups are affected. We will find out when these patterns first emerged in the UK, by comparing data from the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. To see if they only occur in certain policy contexts – strongly suggesting they are avoidable - we will also use data from Norway, which in the same period had different welfare policies and a lower poverty rate. To identify other vulnerable groups, we will look at underweight among adults in low-income employment, and children and adolescents in households affected by unemployment and low-income employment.
The project therefore fills three urgent needs: to describe the extent of inequalities in low body weight, to identify groups of vulnerable adults and children, and to understand the causes of these inequalities. Policymakers currently do not have the knowledge required to consider inequalities across the full body weight range, and this project will fill that gap.