Minimum Wage and Overweight and Obesity in Adult Women: A Multilevel Analysis of Low and Middle Income Countries

Annalijn I Conklin, Ninez A Ponce, John Frank, Arijit Nandi and Jody Heymann

PLOS ONE, 2016, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Objectives: To describe the relationship between minimum wage and overweight and obesity across countries at different levels of development. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of 27 countries with data on the legislated minimum wage level linked to socio-demographic and anthropometry data of non-pregnant 190,892 adult women (24–49 y) from the Demographic and Health Survey. We used multilevel logistic regression models to condition on country- and individual-level potential confounders, and post-estimation of average marginal effects to calculate the adjusted prevalence difference. Results: We found the association between minimum wage and overweight/obesity was independent of individual-level SES and confounders, and showed a reversed pattern by country development stage. The adjusted overweight/obesity prevalence difference in low-income countries was an average increase of about 0.1 percentage points (PD 0.075 [0.065, 0.084]), and an average decrease of 0.01 percentage points in middle-income countries (PD -0.014 [-0.019, -0.009]). The adjusted obesity prevalence difference in low-income countries was an average increase of 0.03 percentage points (PD 0.032 [0.021, 0.042]) and an average decrease of 0.03 percentage points in middle-income countries (PD -0.032 [-0.036, -0.027]). Conclusion: This is among the first studies to examine the potential impact of improved wages on an important precursor of non-communicable diseases globally. Among countries with a modest level of economic development, higher minimum wage was associated with lower levels of obesity.

Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0150736

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150736

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