Abnormal Body Weight and its Socioeconomic Determinants: Evidence from Nigeria
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Date
2018
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Publisher
Journal of Economic & Management Perspectives,
Abstract
Obesity and overweight are among the major contributors to the global burden of diseases as measured by
Disability-Adjusted Life Years due to its capability of increasing the risks of health related diseases. Strand of
literature has focused on the biological factor with less emphasis on socioeconomic factors. Using dataset from
the 2013 National Population for Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), this study applies binary probit
regression model to examine the socioeconomic determinants of overweight and obesity in Nigeria. The study
came up with the following broad stylized facts for overweight and obesity. The socioeconomic determinants of
probability of overweight were age, gender, marital status, household size, education years, rural locality, wealth
index (if poor), ethnicities and educated female. More so, age, female gender, marital status, household size,
education years and educated female influence the probability of overweight among households positively; while age, rural locality, poverty and ethnicities influence the probability of overweight among households negatively.
Also, the socioeconomic determinants of probability of obesity are age, female gender, marital status, household size, education years, rural locality, wealth index (if poor), ethnicities, poor female, educated female and educated poor. Finally, the study recommends public health education, cultural and value re-orientation among others as solution to the problem of overweight and obesity in Nigeria
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Keywords
Socioeconomic factors, Abnormal body weight, Binary Probit Regression Model, Obesity