Social Determinants of Health and Adverse Childhood Experiences: How Are These Intertwined to Determine Childhood Overweight and Obesity in Argentina?

Abstract

Argentina is one of the countries in the Latin American region with the highest incidence of childhood obesity. The incidence of childhood overweight and obesity among children under five years of age is approximately 15%, according to the 2022 MICS survey. Obesity is a nutritional disorder that is explained not only by biological factors but also by socioeconomic and family circumstances. The objective of this study is to investigate the factors and risks that determine childhood overweight and obesity in Argentine children under five years of age. To explain this, this article presents an integrative model of two theoretical frameworks, social determinants of health (SDH) and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), called hereafter “IM-SDH-ACEs”, in order to understand how these determinants are related to influence childhood malnutrition. This study performs a Chi-square test to empirically corroborate that SDH and ACEs influence this type of weight disorder; thus, it is shown that socioeconomic status (SES) and age groups together with ACEs are factors associated with childhood overweight and obesity. Likewise, a multinomial logistic regression model is estimated, and the results show that the highest risks of suffering from overweight and obesity in childhood are the predictors of physical violence (PV) inflicted on the child as well as an interaction of the variables of deprivation in health care and a secondary education level of mothers or carers. It is concluded that a more inclusive social policy is required to reduce childhood obesity in Latin American societies.