Overweight: socioeconomic factors and consequences
Abstract
Increasing overweight is one of the leading global public health problems. In recent decades, this phenomenon has become a subject of intensive research in various fields of science. In Russia, the socioeconomic factors and consequences of overweight are insufficiently studied. This paper reviews the literature on the causes of overweight and the costs borne by individuals, employers, and the state. Based on microdata from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for the years 2012-2016, we conduct an empirical analysis of obesity and pre-obesity in Russia. We investigate the links between overweight and demographic and socioeconomic factors, labour market outcomes and health spending.
Our results confirm an unambiguous connection between overweight and age, as well as gender of an individual. Overweight is also associated with unhealthy lifestyles. Among females, university education is correlated with low values of body mass index (BMI). Among males, on the contrary, a high level of education is associated with pre-obesity and obesity.
Regression estimates of overweight and labour outcomes show that BMI significantly correlates with employment probability and – for male workers – with wages. However, in both cases this correlation is positive for small or moderate BMI values, while for extreme obesity the correlation is negative.
An increase in body weight is associated with an increasing number of chronic diseases, a worsening of self-rated health and a growing likelihood of disability. Compared to people with normal weight, obese people, on average, check into hospitals on a more frequent basis, buy pharmaceuticals more often and pay more for them. At the same time, econometric analysis confirms a positive correlation of weight and health spending only for women and people suffering from pre-obesity.
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