The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of socio-economic status (SES) on the Body Mass Index (BMI), a formula based on the ratio of height to weight, linked to health, using a four-year (1991, 1993, 1997 and 2000) panel data set which comes from the Physical Examination in China Health and Nutrition Survey. To an extent we confirm the results with respect to the linkage between SES and the documented healthy BMI found for other developing countries. Furthermore, apart from using the existing specification of BMI, we develop a little further the issue on how to define BMI with respect to the adjustment of gender and age. This leads to a slightly different formulation for the BMI and a substantially different healthy range based on self-reported health. We also find that the healthy BMI has a significant impact on health together with SES.
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Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number
6270.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
van Doorslaer, Eddy & Wagstaff, Adam & van der Burg, Hattem & Christiansen, Terkel & De Graeve, Diana & Duchesne, Inge & Gerdtham, Ulf-G & Gerfin, Michael & Geurts, Jose & Gross, Lorna, 2000.
"Equity in the delivery of health care in Europe and the US,"
Journal of Health Economics,
Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 553-583, September.
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