Differences in the U.S. Trends in the Prevalence of Obesity Based on Body Mass Index and Skinfold Thickness

Richard Burkhauser, John Cawley and Maximilian Schmeiser

No 15005, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: There are several ways to measure fatness and obesity, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. The primary measure for tracking the prevalence of obesity has historically been body mass index (BMI). This paper compares long-run trends in the prevalence of obesity when obesity is defined using skinfold thickness instead of body mass index (BMI), using data from the full series of U.S. National Health Examination Surveys. The results indicate that when one uses skinfold thicknesses rather than BMI to define obesity, the rise in the prevalence of obesity is detectable ten to twenty years earlier. This underscores the importance of examining multiple measures of fatness when monitoring or otherwise studying obesity.

JEL-codes: I1 J11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: CH EH
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Burkhauser, Richard V., John Cawley, and Maximilian D. Schmeiser. 2009. “The Timing of the Rise in U.S. Obesity Varies With Measure of Fatness.” Economics and Human Biology, 7(3): 307-318.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w15005.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15005

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w15005

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().