INTER-TEMPORAL CHANGE OF BODY MASS INDEX IN BRAZIL- WHAT IS THE ROLE OF FOOD PRICES?
Author(s)
Balbinotto G, Cardoso L
UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL, PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil
BACKGROUND: Obesity can be understood as a problem resulting from the imbalance between the intake and the individual caloric expenditure, which has sparked concern among researchers and policymakers in public health. The alert comes up with the fast growth in the prevalence of obesity in adults and children in Brazil. OBJECTIVES: In this context, the challenge of this essay is to analyze the major changes in BMI between 2002 and 2009 and to estimate the relationship between food prices and obesity, in order to check the effect of food prices on BMI in BrazilMETHODS: To assess the changes in BMI over time, first of all, we analyze its distribution using the relative distribution method proposed by Handcock and Morris (1998). Then, recentered influence function (RIF) regressions were applied to decompose the changes in the BMI distribution into composition and structure effects and identify the specific contribution of food prices. The empirical estimates needed are based on micro-data from household budget survey in two points of time: 2002-2003 and 2008-2009 accomplished by the Brazilian Institute of geography (IBGE). Were considered only the information regarding the adult population aged less than 20 years. RESULTS: The main changes in BMI distribution showed that the density has moved to the right over the time and there were increases in the right hand tail. Despite the small effect, the RIF results show that the prices variations over the period contributed to change BMI. If prices had not changed, the median BMI would be 0.22 higher. The increases in the prices of meat, ssb and fruits and vegetables showed the greatest mean effects on BMI, especially to upper quantiles of the distribution. There are also evidences that income and age contributed to rise BMI, while education is associated to a lowering effect.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2014-05, ISPOR 2014, Palais des Congres de Montreal
Value in Health, Vol. 17, No. 3 (May 2014)
Code
PSY71
Topic
Health Service Delivery & Process of Care
Topic Subcategory
Hospital and Clinical Practices
Disease
Diabetes/Endocrine/Metabolic Disorders