Many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are experiencing a nutrition transition from traditional diets to high-energy, processed foods, increasing non-communicable disease risks. Digitalization of food systems plays a significant role in shaping this transition. This paper investigates the...

This paper uses restricted-access data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey to assess whether the sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax levied in Seattle in 2018 led to declines in body mass index (BMI) and the rate of obesity. We implement an event-study design which compares...

We propose a theoretical model to study individual lifestyle choices related to calorie intake and physical activity, depending on personal fitness level and body weight. The model builds on the rational eating literature and can generate a variety of behaviors that are consistent with the...

Background Obesity has become major public health problem around the world. Lifestyle interventions, Pharmacotherapy and bariatric surgery are the common intervention to reduce weight in clinical practice. This study aims to conduct an economic evaluation of Duodenal-Jejunal Bypass Sleeve (DJBS)...

Sequence and cluster analysis is applied to measures of body mass index for mothers and children for four waves of the Growing up in Ireland longitudinal data set. Optimal matching analysis is used to construct a dissimilarity matrix to which cluster analysis is then applied. Distinct...

The identification of factors affecting birth weight is a key issue in human development due to its established associations with long-term health, educational and labour-market outcomes. This paper exploits intergenerational information on three generations (grandparents-parents-children) to...

Malnutrition in its various forms is a serious problem in many countries, contributing to human suffering, large healthcare costs, and hampered economic and human development. While various policies to reduce malnutrition exist, such policies typically fail to consider cultural factors. Here, we...

This report uses data on food and non-alcoholic drink purchases from shops, takeaways, restaurants and other outlets to analyse how the diets of a large, representative panel of households in Great Britain evolved 15 months before and up to 24 months after the start of the onset of the COVID-19...

Elisa Macchi (2023) investigates the impact of obesity on the perceived wealth of individuals using primary data collected in Kampala, Uganda. The study includes two complementary experiments: a beliefs experiment and a credit experiment. In the beliefs experiment, individuals assess the wealth...

This paper investigates the spatial distribution of two nutritional variables: obesity prevalence in women and chronic malnutrition prevalence in children across 339 municipalities in Bolivia in 2016. Using data from the Municipal Atlas of the Sustainable Development Goals Bolivia 2020, the...

Children form social ties along dimensions of gender and race/ethnicity, and thus may differ greatly in exposure to peer health and also in reactivity to peer influence. This paper estimates heterogeneity in the peer effects of obesity along dimensions of gender, race/ethnicity, and...

I argue that increased consumption of vegetable seed oils high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fats has driven obesity in the United States, a link overlooked in the economics literature. Obesity rates have closely tracked the level of seed oils in the food supply since 1960, while diverging from...

Background Earlier studies have estimated the impact of increased body mass index (BMI) on healthcare costs. Various methods have been used to avoid potential biases and inconsistencies. Each of these methods measure different local effects and have different strengths and weaknesses. Methods In...

We investigate the impact of high-rise buildings on the prevalence of obesity in the US during 2011-2020 stratified by educated vs. non-educated populations. We use a quadratic specification that accounts for non-monotonic variation. Findings demonstrate that concentration of above 147...

Since 2015, the UK government has worked with the food industry to reformulate a wide range of food products to reduce sugar, fat and calorie content. The industry has been given the target of lowering the number of calories in certain products by 20% by 2025. The reformulation scheme was...

Regulation of meat consumption appears to be a relevant public policy to limit diet-related greenhouse gas emissions. However, the real impact of such a policy (e.g., tax) on human health and nutrition remains uncertain, especially for underprivileged individuals. Based on representative data...

This study explores whether hospitals with higher increases in obesity levels have higher CS rates and the consequential effects on maternal and newborn health in Mexico for 2008-2015. It models how changes in the obesity level of hospitals' patient pools may affect the quantity and quality of...

In this study, it was aimed to examine the nutritional level habits of sedentary women according to body mass index. A total of 504 sedentary women with a mean age of 48.79±3.65 living in Gaziantep city center voluntarily participated in the study. In order to determine the nutritional habits...

Background: Past studies have typically found a negative association between body mass index (BMI) and income for females. For males, results have been mixed, and overall previous studies suggest a small or no association. However, little is known about the effect of BMI on income across...