Obesity Trends Among U.S. Adults BRFSS, 2004

1
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2004
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data 1519 2024 25
2
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1985
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
3
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1986
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
4
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1987
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
5
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1988
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
6
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1989
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
7
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1990
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
8
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1991
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
9
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1992
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
10
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1993
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
11
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1994
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
12
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1995
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
13
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1996
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
14
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1997
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
15
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1998
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
16
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1999
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
17
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2000
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
18
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2001
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data 2024 25
19
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2002
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data 2024 25
20
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2003
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data 1519 2024 25
21
Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2004
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs overweight for 5 4
person)
No Data 1519 2024 25
22
(No Transcript)
23

• The large revenues of the diet industry
• (40-100 (?) billion annually) is one
  indication of self-control problems. In addition,
  there are externalities from being obese.
• This might justify
• increased taxation of unhealthy food.
• libertarian paternalism (e.g. healthier food
  items in canteens, educational campaigns).

24
Externalities

• Definition An unpriced byproduct of production
  or consumption that adversely affects another
  party not directly involved in the market
  transaction.
• Cigarette smoking
• Pollution
• Medical treatment for persons with unhealthy
  nutritional choices
• Medical treatment for cyclists who dont wear
  helmets
• Drunk drivers

25
Cigarette smoking is an example of a (negative)
demand-side externality.

• Smokers impose (work-related) costs on
  nonsmokers.
• Health insurance, pensions, sick leave,
  disability, group life insurance financed
  collectively by smokers and nonsmokers.
• But smokers, die earlier, pay less taxes,
  premiums.

26
Smokers also impose health care costs on
nonsmokers.

• Smokers usually incur higher health care costs.
• But nonsmokers die prematurely from passive
  smoking, smoking-related fires.
• The total external costs of cigarette smoking are
  estimated to be 15 per pack. (Manning et al.,
  1991)

27
Final Caveats

• Market failure is a necessary, but not sufficient
  condition for government intervention
• It may cost the government 10m to correct a
  problem in the marketplace, which imposes 8m in
  damages.
• Does government intervention correct for market
  imperfections, or is it ruled by special interest
  groups??

28
(No Transcript)
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• Authors use NLSY (National Longitudinal Survey of
  Youth), matched mother-child data.
• Key outcome variable childs BMI
• Key explanatory variable mothers employment
  history
• hours per week
• total weeks per year
• Authors focus on demographic subgroups
• income
• mothers education
• race/ethnicity

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• Authors use several econometric techniques in an
  attempt to establish the causal effect of a
  mothers work history on childs weight
• probit analysis
• mother fixed effects (using sibling data)
• instrumental variables

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• Conclusions
• In general weak evidence that a child is more
  likely to be overweight if his/her mother
  worked more hours per week over the childs
  life cycle.
• For high socioeconomic status families strong
  evidence
• (Note lower incidence over overweight children
  in these families)
• Likely explanations
• . higher caloric intake due to lower degree of
  parental control
• (e.g. snacks)
• . lower level of caloric expenditures (e.g.
  watching TV)

35
Some BFRRS results HE student population Oct.
24, 2005
46 observations min
median mean max id
1.0000000 23.500000
23.500000 46.000000 shealth
1.0000000 2.0000000 2.3260870
5.0000000 english 0.00000000
1.0000000 0.91304348 1.0000000 wx
50.000000 164.00000
153.71739 250.00000 h1
1.0000000 5.0000000 4.8913043
6.0000000 h2 0.00000000
4.0000000 10.521739 92.000000
gender 1.0000000 1.0000000
1.4347826 2.0000000 Height
(meter) 1.5240000 1.7018000
1.7151261 1.9558000 Weight (kg)
45.359000 74.842350 72.931861
113.39750 BMI 17.713931
23.682973 24.732148 37.106256
overweight or obese (BMI 25) 0.30434783
obese (BMI 30)
0.15217391
36
load zdat46,7c\gauss\brffs.dat seqa(1,1,7)mi
nc(zdat)median(zdat)meanc(zdat)maxc(zdat) "
" n46 n " " _at_define variable
names_at_ idzdat.,1 hcondzdat.,2 engzdat.,3
wxzdat.,4 h1zdat.,5 h2zdat.,6 femal
e(zdat.,7.2) _at_calculate height in meters
and weight in kilograms_at_ height((h10.01h2).(en
g.0)(h10.3048h20.0254).(eng.1)) weight(
wx.(eng.0)(0.45359wx).(eng.1)) bmiweigh
t./(height2) xdatheightweightbmi "
" minc(xdat)median(xdat)meanc(xdat)maxc(xdat)
" " overweightsumc(bmi.25)/n obesesumc(bmi
.30)/n overweightobese