IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ehbiol/v11y2013i3p345-350.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intercontinental differences in overweight of adopted Koreans in the United States and Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Ulijaszek, Stanley
  • Schwekendiek, Daniel

Abstract

A greater proportion of the United States (US) population is overweight or obese (with BMI over 25kg/m2) relative to all Western European populations, and it might be expected that migrants to either the US or Western Europe would develop patterns of overweight and obesity that reflect this difference. This paper examines the effects of obesogenic environments on Asians by reporting differences in rates of overweight (which is taken to include obesity in this analysis) among 261 adult South Koreans, which had been adopted in early-life into white middle class families living in the US and in Western European Nations. Data collected during an international adoption survey carried out for the Korean government in 2008 were analyzed. The prevalence of overweight of adopted Koreans raised in the US significantly exceeds the level among adopted Koreans in Europe by 11.3%. These intercontinental differences are statistically significant after controlling for sex, current age, age of adoption, and education. This paper supports the view that life-style factors are more detrimental for the weight status of people in the US than in Western Europe.

Suggested Citation

  • Ulijaszek, Stanley & Schwekendiek, Daniel, 2013. "Intercontinental differences in overweight of adopted Koreans in the United States and Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 345-350.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:11:y:2013:i:3:p:345-350
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2012.09.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X12000986
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ehb.2012.09.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffery, R.W. & French, S.A., 1998. "Epidemic obesity in the United States: Are fast foods and television viewing contributing?," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 88(2), pages 277-280.
    2. Komlos, John & Baur, Marieluise, 2004. "From the tallest to (one of) the fattest: the enigmatic fate of the American population in the 20th century," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 57-74, March.
    3. Danubio, Maria Enrica & Miranda, Gaetano & Vinciguerra, Maria Giulia & Vecchi, Elvira & Rufo, Fabrizio, 2008. "Comparison of self-reported and measured height and weight: Implications for obesity research among young adults," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 181-190, March.
    4. Schwekendiek, Daniel & Pak, Sunyoung, 2009. "Recent growth of children in the two Koreas: A meta-analysis," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 109-112, March.
    5. Pak, Sunyoung, 2004. "The biological standard of living in the two Koreas," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 511-518, December.
    6. Pak, Sunyoung, 2010. "The growth status of North Korean refugee children and adolescents from 6 to 19 years of age," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 385-395, December.
    7. Offer, Avner & Pechey, Rachel & Ulijaszek, Stanley, 2010. "Obesity under affluence varies by welfare regimes: The effect of fast food, insecurity, and inequality," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 297-308, December.
    8. Offer, Avner & Pechey, Rachel & Ulijaszek, Stanley, 2010. "Obesity under affluence varies by welfare regimes: The effect of fast food, insecurity, and inequality," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 297-308, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Costa-Font, Joan & Mas, Núria, 2016. "‘Globesity’? The effects of globalization on obesity and caloric intake," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 121-132.
    2. Costa-i-Font, Joan & Mas, Núria & Navarro, Patricia, 2013. "Globesity: is globalization a pathway to obesity?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 49488, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hruschka, Daniel J. & Brewis, Alexandra A., 2013. "Absolute wealth and world region strongly predict overweight among women (ages 18–49) in 360 populations across 36 developing countries," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 337-344.
    2. Costa-Font, Joan & Mas, Núria, 2016. "‘Globesity’? The effects of globalization on obesity and caloric intake," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 121-132.
    3. Jun, Seong Ho & Lewis, James B. & Schwekendiek, Daniel, 2017. "The biological standard of living in pre-modern Korea: Determinants of height of militia recruits during the Chosŏn dynasty," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 104-110.
    4. Komlos, John & Brabec, Marek, 2011. "The trend of BMI values of US adults by deciles, birth cohorts 1882-1986 stratified by gender and ethnicity," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 234-250, July.
    5. Costa-i-Font, Joan & Mas, Núria & Navarro, Patricia, 2013. "Globesity: is globalization a pathway to obesity?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 49488, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Paul A. David & S. Ryan Johansson & Andrea Pozzi, 2010. "The Demography of an Early Mortality Transition: Life Expectancy, Survival and Mortality Rates for Britain's Royals, 1500-1799," Oxford University Economic and Social History Series _083, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    7. Nicholas Rohde & KK Tang & Lars Osberg, 2017. "The self-reinforcing dynamics of economic insecurity and obesity," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(17), pages 1668-1678, April.
    8. Lane Kenworthy & Timothy Smeeding, 2013. "GINI Country Report: Growing Inequalities and their Impacts in the United States," GINI Country Reports united_states, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    9. Eric B. Schneider, 2014. "Prices and production: agricultural supply response in fourteenth-century England," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(1), pages 66-91, February.
    10. Robert J. B. Goudie & Sach Mukherjee & Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & Andrew J. Oswald & Stephen Wu, 2011. "Happiness as a Driver of Risk-Avoiding Behavior," CESifo Working Paper Series 3451, CESifo.
    11. Currie, Phillippa & Smith, Trenton G. & Stillman, Steven, 2014. "Is Job Insecurity Making Australians Fat? Evidence from Panel Data on Perceived Risk of Job Loss," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170720, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Syngjoo Choi & Byung-Yeon Kim & Jungmin Lee & Sokbae (Simon) Lee, 2020. "Institutions, competitiveness and cognitive ability," CeMMAP working papers CWP31/20, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    13. Eric B. Schneider, 2014. "Prices and production: agricultural supply response in fourteenth-century England," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(1), pages 66-91, February.
    14. Rohde, Nicholas & Tang, Kam Ki & D’Ambrosio, Conchita & Osberg, Lars & Rao, Prasada, 2020. "Welfare-based income insecurity in the us and germany: evidence from harmonized panel data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 226-243.
    15. Baggio, Michele & Chong, Alberto, 2020. "Recreational marijuana laws and junk food consumption," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    16. Ferda Halicioglu, 2013. "Dynamics of obesity in Finland," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(5), pages 644-657, October.
    17. Conchita D'Ambrosio & Nicholas Rohde, 2014. "The Distribution of Economic Insecurity: Italy and the U.S. over the Great Recession," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(S1), pages 33-52, May.
    18. Costa-Font, Joan & Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina & Jiménez-Rubio, Dolores, 2014. "Income inequalities in unhealthy life styles in England and Spain," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 66-75.
    19. Lyttkens, Carl Hampus, 2011. "Health, Economics and Ancient Greek Medicine," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 165-192.
    20. Blum, Matthias, 2013. "The influence of inequality on the standard of living: Worldwide anthropometric evidence from the 19th and 20th centuries," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 436-452.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:11:y:2013:i:3:p:345-350. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622964 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.