Sobrepeso infantil en Uruguay, más allá de los recursos del hogar

In developed countries overweight and obesity among children has been associated with the scarce availability of resources at home. However, the evidence for the rest of the world is not conclusive. This document analyzes the evolution of overweight and obesity in young children and their association with maternal employment, the nutritional status of mothers and a wide set of socioeconomic variables for Uruguay. Also, it explores four possible explanatory channels: eating patterns, screen exposure, sleep patterns, and sedentary lifestyle. The study is carried out based on the three follow-up rounds of the first cohort of the Nutrition, Development and Health Survey, linked to reported income tax data. A multivariate analysis is performed that incorporates lagged socioeconomic variables and dynamic models. It is found that the incidence of overweight and obesity increased substantially, around 50%, as the children grew older and a high association between generations (mothers and children) is observed. Unlike studies for developed countries, there not a higher prevalence of excess weight problems in the lower-income strata, but also the overweight prevalence increases with income and educational level of mothers. Besides, there is no association with the labor insertion of mothers. The association between the possible explanatory channels and the variables of interest is in line with the results: higher income and educational level of mothers are associated with greater sedentary lifestyle, fewer hours of sleep and greater exposure to screens. This suggests that policies aimed at reducing excess nutritional problems should consider broad sectors of the population.