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Economic development, urbanization, technological change and overweight: What do we learn from 244 Demographic and Health Surveys?

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  • Goryakin, Yevgeniy
  • Suhrcke, Marc

Abstract

Obesity and overweight are spreading fast in developing countries, and have reached world record levels in some of them. Capturing the size, patterns and trends of the problem has, however, been severely hampered by the lack of comparable data in low and middle income countries. We seek to begin to fill this gap by testing several hypotheses on the determinants/correlates of overweight among women, related to the influence of economic and technological development. We undertake econometric analysis of nationally representative data on about 878,000 women aged 15–49 from 244 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for 56 countries over the years 1991–2009. Our findings support most previously expressed hypotheses of what might explain obesity patterns in developing countries, but they also reject some prior notions and add considerable nuance to the emerging pattern.

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  • Goryakin, Yevgeniy & Suhrcke, Marc, 2014. "Economic development, urbanization, technological change and overweight: What do we learn from 244 Demographic and Health Surveys?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 14(C), pages 109-127.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:14:y:2014:i:c:p:109-127
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2013.11.003
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    1. Ferretti, Fabrizio & Mariani, Michele, 2017. "Simple vs. Complex Carbohydrate Dietary Patterns and the Global Overweight and Obesity Pandemic," MPRA Paper 81877, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Sep 2017.
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    6. Mucahit Aydin, 2019. "The effect of economic growth on obesity for the most obese countries: new evidence from the obesity Kuznets curve," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 20(9), pages 1349-1358, December.
    7. Fabrizio Ferretti & Michele Mariani, 2017. "Simple vs. Complex Carbohydrate Dietary Patterns and the Global Overweight and Obesity Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-12, October.
    8. Aiyar, Anaka & Dhingra, Sunaina & Pingali, Prabhu, 2021. "Transitioning to an obese India: Demographic and structural determinants of the rapid rise in overweight incidence," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    9. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), 2016. "Global Nutrition Report 2016: From Promise to Impact: Ending Malnutrition by 2030," IFPRI books, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), number 978-0-89629-584-1.
    10. Burggraf, Christine & Teuber, Ramona & Brosig, Stephan & Glauben, Thomas, 2015. "Economic growth and the demand for dietary quality: Evidence from Russia during transition," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 184-203.
    11. Saadet Kasman & Adnan Kasman, 2021. "Convergence in obesity and overweight rates across OECD countries: evidence from the stochastic and club convergence tests," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 1063-1096, August.
    12. Hossain, Sorif & Chowdhury, Promit Barua & Biswas, Raaj Kishore & Hossain, Md. Amir, 2020. "Malnutrition status of children under 5 years in Bangladesh: A sociodemographic assessment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    13. Abay, Kibrom A. & Amare, Mulubrhan, 2018. "Night light intensity and women’s body weight: Evidence from Nigeria," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 238-248.
    14. Sengupta, Angan & Angeli, Federica & Syamala, Thelakkat S. & Dagnelie, Pieter C. & Schayck, C.P. van, 2015. "Overweight and obesity prevalence among Indian women by place of residence and socio-economic status: Contrasting patterns from ‘underweight states’ and ‘overweight states’ of India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 161-169.
    15. Dioikitopoulos, Evangelos V. & Minos, Dimitrios & Vandoros, Sotiris, 2020. "The (Agri-)Cultural origins of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    16. Indra de Soysa & Ann Kristin de Soysa, 2018. "Do Globalization and Free Markets Drive Obesity among Children and Youth? An Empirical Analysis, 1990–2013," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 88-106, January.
    17. Lívia Madeira Triaca & Paulo de Andrade Jacinto & Marco Túlio Aniceto França & César Augusto Oviedo Tejada, 2020. "Does greater unemployment make people thinner in Brazil?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(10), pages 1279-1288, October.
    18. Kedir Y Ahmed & Abdon G Rwabilimbo & Solomon Abrha & Andrew Page & Amit Arora & Fentaw Tadese & Tigistu Yemane Beyene & Abdulaziz Seiko & Abdulhafiz A Endris & Kingsley E Agho & Felix Akpojene Ogbo & , 2020. "Factors associated with underweight, overweight, and obesity in reproductive age Tanzanian women," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-16, August.
    19. Goryakin, Yevgeniy & Lobstein, Tim & James, W. Philip T. & Suhrcke, Marc, 2015. "The impact of economic, political and social globalization on overweight and obesity in the 56 low and middle income countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 67-76.
    20. Goryakin, Yevgeniy & Rocco, Lorenzo & Suhrcke, Marc, 2017. "The contribution of urbanization to non-communicable diseases: Evidence from 173 countries from 1980 to 2008," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 151-163.
    21. Duncan, Roberto & Toledo, Patricia, 2019. "Inequality in body mass indices across countries: Evidence from convergence tests," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 40-57.

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