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Income Inequality and Obesity among US Adults 1999–2016: Does Sex Matter?

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  • Hossein Zare

    (Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
    Global Health Services and Administration, University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), 624 N. Broadway, Hampton House 337, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA)

  • Danielle D. Gaskin

    (Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA)

  • Roland J. Thorpe

    (Program for Research on Men’s Health, Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA)

Abstract

Obesity is a major public health problem that varies by income and sex, yet there is little evidence to determine the association between income inequality and obesity. We examined the association between income and obesity in adults ages 20 years and older and tested whether this relationship differs by sex in the United States. We used the 1999–2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We defined obesity if the body mass index was ≥30 kg/m 2 , and calculated the Gini coefficient (GC) to measure income inequality by using the Poverty Income Ratio. We examined the association between income and obesity using a Modified Poisson regression in a sample of 36,665 adults. We adjusted the models according to age, racial/ethnic groups, marital status, education, health behaviors, health insurance, self-reported health, and household structure. The association between income and obesity was consistently more significant among middle-income quintile and higher-income quintile men than among lower-income quintile men. The same association was not found for women; women in the highest income quintile were less likely to suffer from obesity than among lower-income quintile women. Our results suggest that policymakers should consider strategies to reduce structural inequality and encourage access to healthy foods and community-supported agricultural programs as nutritional interventions in low-income population settings.

Suggested Citation

  • Hossein Zare & Danielle D. Gaskin & Roland J. Thorpe, 2021. "Income Inequality and Obesity among US Adults 1999–2016: Does Sex Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-13, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:13:p:7079-:d:587310
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    2. Shaoqing Gong & Liang Wang & Zhongliang Zhou & Kesheng Wang & Arsham Alamian, 2022. "Income Disparities in Obesity Trends among U.S. Adults: An Analysis of the 2011–2014 California Health Interview Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-9, June.

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