Obesity and Social Inequality in America

Kristen Broady and Aisha Meeks

The Review of Black Political Economy, 2015, vol. 42, issue 3, 201-209

Abstract: In the United States food has become a weapon for social control. Hunger and conversely obesity have contributed to the subjugation of underserved populations and served to perpetuate social inequality. This research provides an analysis of the literature on factors that influence obesity rates, however the question of why these factors play a significant role probes deeper into the political and social structures that lend themselves to such inequities. Obesity rates have historically been higher in Southern states, leading to a consideration of historical food preparation and consumption practices and the intergenerational transmission of food culture. This study uses ordinary least squares regression and data from the Centers for Disease Control, and Prevention (CDC), the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Census to examine the factors that influence state level obesity rates. The results indicate a significant positive correlation between Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) assistance and the obesity rate. Lack of physical activity and the percentage of African American residents are also significantly correlated with the level of obesity. In contrast healthy food outlets within a half-mile of the residence appear to be associated with lower levels of obesity. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Keywords: Obesity; Race; Physical activity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s12114-014-9202-1 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:spr:blkpoe:v:42:y:2015:i:3:p:201-209

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/12114

DOI: 10.1007/s12114-014-9202-1

Access Statistics for this article

The Review of Black Political Economy is currently edited by C. Conrad

More articles in The Review of Black Political Economy from Springer, National Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().