Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the association between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and skeletal muscle mass in Chinese college students.
Methods: A cross-sectional study including 2204 college freshmen was conducted in Shenyang, China. Data regarding body composition, health examinations, and a self-reported questionnaire were available from all the participants. Skeletal muscle mass assessment was completed by a bioelectrical impedance analyzer. Information on parental SES (educational levels, annual income, and occupational status) was collected via questionnaires. Covariance analysis was used to adjust for the confounding effects of sex, age, ethnicity, smoking status, alcohol use, and sleep duration.
Results: Multivariate analysis showed that college freshmen with higher parental SES levels generally had higher skeletal muscle mass after adjustment for confounding factors (mean [95% confidence interval]: low, 42.4 [42.0, 42.8]; middle, 42.9 [42.6, 43.3]; high, 43.7 [43.4, 44.1], p  for trend < 0.001). Similar results were observed for paternal and maternal SES (p  for trend < 0.001, respectively), whereas association between paternal SES and youth muscle mass became non-significant after adjusting for maternal SES (p  for trend = 0.077). Results also showed positive linear trends for skeletal muscle mass and paternal or maternal educational levels and annual income (p  for trend < 0.001, respectively), but not for occupational status.
Conclusion: This study found a positive association between parental SES and skeletal muscle mass in Chinese college students. Compared to the normalization of height or weight, body mass index-adjusted skeletal muscle mass is more likely to be associated with SES.
Keywords: educational status, annual income, occupational status, muscular fitness, youth