The Super Size of America: An Economic Estimation of Body Mass Index and Obesity in Adults

The increased prevalence of obesity in the United States stresses the pressing need for answers as to why this rapid rise has occurred. This paper employs micro-level data from the First, Second, and Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys to determine the effects that various state-level variables have on body mass index and obesity. These variables, which include the per capita number of restaurants, the gasoline tax, the cigarette tax, and clean indoor air laws, display many of the expected effects on obesity and explain a substantial amount of its trend. These findings control for individual-level measures of household income, years of formal schooling completed, and marital status.

[1]  J. Cawley.  The Impact of Obesity on Wages , 2004, The Journal of Human Resources.

[2]  S. Raudenbush,et al.  Relationship between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity, Obesity, and Morbidity , 2003, American journal of health promotion : AJHP.

[3]  Fred Charatan,et al.  Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World , 2003, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[4]  B. Popkin,et al.  Patterns and trends in food portion sizes, 1977-1998. , 2003, JAMA.

[5]  D. Allison,et al.  Years of life lost due to obesity. , 2003, JAMA.

[6]  Abdullah Al Mamun,et al.  Obesity in Adulthood and Its Consequences for Life Expectancy: A Life-Table Analysis , 2003, Annals of Internal Medicine.

[7]  Jesse M. Shapiro,et al.  Why Have Americans Become More Obese? , 2003 .

[8]  R. Ross,et al.  Body mass index, waist circumference, and health risk: evidence in support of current National Institutes of Health guidelines. , 2002, Archives of internal medicine.

[9]  Laura Kettel Khan,et al.  Trends and correlates of class 3 obesity in the United States from 1990 through 2000. , 2002, JAMA.

[10]  K. Flegal,et al.  Prevalence and trends in obesity among US adults, 1999-2000. , 2002, JAMA.

[11]  M. Grossman,et al.  An Economic Analysis of Adult Obesity: Results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System , 2002, Journal of health economics.

[12]  D. Allison,et al.  Twins and virtual twins: bases of relative body weight revisited , 2002, International Journal of Obesity.

[13]  L. Epstein,et al.  Dietary variety, energy regulation, and obesity. , 2001, Psychological bulletin.

[14]  Mimi Martin.  Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal , 2001 .

[15]  G. Colditz,et al.  The disease burden associated with overweight and obesity. , 1999, JAMA.

[16]  W H Dietz,et al.  Caloric imbalance and public health policy. , 1999, JAMA.

[17]  G. Colditz,et al.  Weight Concerns, Weight Control Behaviors, and Smoking Initiation , 1999, Pediatrics.

[18]  W. Dietz,et al.  The Relation of Overweight to Cardiovascular Risk Factors Among Children and Adolescents: The Bogalusa Heart Study , 1999, Pediatrics.

[19]  K. Flegal,et al.  Prediction equations do not eliminate systematic error in self-reported body mass index. , 1997, Obesity research.

[20]  B. Rolls,et al.  Fat, carbohydrate, and the regulation of energy intake. , 1995, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[21]  P. Ippolito,et al.  Information and advertising: the case of fat consumption in the United States. , 1995, The American economic review.

[22]  McGinnis Jm,et al.  Actual causes of death in the United States. , 1993 .

[23]  S. Korenman,et al.  The Economic Reality of the Beauty Myth , 1993 .

[24]  E. Keeler,et al.  The external costs of a sedentary life-style. , 1989, American journal of public health.

[25]  J. Yarnell,et al.  Diet, smoking, social class, and body mass index in the Caerphilly Heart Disease Study. , 1984, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[26]  G. Katona,et al.  The Mass Consumption Society , 1965 .

[27]  A. Mokdad,et al.  Prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and obesity-related health risk factors, 2001. , 2003, JAMA.

[28]  M. Mitka.  Economist takes aim at "big fat" US lifestyle. , 2003, JAMA.

[29]  S. Klein.  Fat Land : How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World , 2003 .

[30]  T. Philipson,et al.  The world-wide growth in obesity: an economic research agenda. , 2001, Health economics.

[31]  R. Jeffery,et al.  Fast food restaurant use among women in the Pound of Prevention study: dietary, behavioral and demographic correlates , 2000, International Journal of Obesity.

[32]  Michael J. Moore,et al.  Habit Formation and Intertemporal Substitution in Individual Food Consumption , 1996 .

[33]  P. J. Huber.  The behavior of maximum likelihood estimates under nonstandard conditions , 1967 .