The role of gender inequality in the obesity epidemic: A case study from India

Valentina Alvarez-Saavedra, Pierre Levasseur () and Suneha Seetahul
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Valentina Alvarez-Saavedra: BSE - Bordeaux Sciences Economiques - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Pierre Levasseur: SADAPT - Sciences pour l'Action et le Développement : Activités, Produits, Territoires - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement

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Abstract: Recent empirical evidence emphasizes the higher prevalence of overweight and obesity for women, especially in developing countries. However, the potential link between gender inequality and obesity has rarely been investigated. Using longitudinal data from India (IHDS 2005-11), we implement Hausman-Taylor and fixed-effect models to estimate the effect of different dimensions of gender inequalities on female overweight. This study demonstrates that the form of gender inequality or women's mistreatment differently affects female bodyweight. Indeed, we show that some forms of women's mistreatments (such as perceived community violence and age difference with husband) increase the risk of female overweight, whereas more severe forms of abuse such as child marriage increase the risk of underweight. Moreover, we also find that higher decision-making power and autonomy about outings are risk factors of weight gain and obesity, especially in urban settings, perhaps indicating a higher exposure to urban obesogenic lifestyles. To conclude, our results suggest that, although improving women's status in society may be a key action to address the epidemic of obesity, policies must also target hazardous habits that emancipation may imply in urban (obesogenic) environments.

Keywords: India; Gender inequality; Obesity; Hausman-Taylor estimations; Fixed effects estimations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-08-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev and nep-hea
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Related works:
Journal Article: The Role of Gender Inequality in the Obesity Epidemic: A Case Study from India (2023)
Working Paper: The Role of Gender Inequality in the Obesity Epidemic: A Case Study from India (2023)
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