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The Impact of BMI on Mental Health: Further Evidence from Genetic Markers

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  • Amin, Vikesh
  • Flores, Carlos A
  • Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso

Abstract

We examine the relationship between BMI and mental health for young adults and elderly individuals using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the Health & Retirement Study. While OLS estimates show that BMI is significantly associated with worse mental health in both young adulthood and old age, they are likely to be confounded by (i) unobserved factors that affect both BMI and mental health and (ii) reverse causality. To tackle confounding, we take two complementary approaches. First, we use a polygenic score for BMI as an IV and adjust for polygenic scores for other factors that may invalidate this IV. The IV estimates indicate that there is no statistically significant relationship between BMI and mental health for young adults, whereas there is a positive and statistically significant relationship for the elderly. Moreover, we show that IV estimates likely have to be interpreted as identifying a weighted average of effects of BMI on mental health mostly for individuals on the upper quantiles of the BMI distribution. Given potential remaining concerns about the validity of the IV, our second approach is to consider it an “imperfect” IV and estimate an upper bound on the average treatment effect for the corresponding population following Nevo & Rosen (2012). The estimated upper bounds reinforce the conclusions from the IV estimates: they show little evidence of a detrimental effect of BMI on mental health for young adults while being consistent with an economically meaningful effect for elderly individuals. Lastly, we explore some of the potential channels through which BMI may affect mental health for the elderly.

Suggested Citation

  • Amin, Vikesh & Flores, Carlos A & Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso, 2019. "The Impact of BMI on Mental Health: Further Evidence from Genetic Markers," SocArXiv p6c3g, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:p6c3g
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/p6c3g
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    Cited by:

    1. Baltagi, Badi H. & Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso & Karatas, Haci M., 2023. "The effect of higher education on Women's obesity and smoking: Evidence from college openings in Turkey," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    2. Barone, Adriana & Barra, Cristian, 2019. "Weight status and mental health in Italy: Evidence from EHIS2 microdata," MPRA Paper 96703, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Weng, Alex Xingbang, 2025. "Depression and Risky Health Behaviors," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    4. Alex Xingbang Weng, 2025. "Education and Mental Health in Young Adulthood: New Evidence From Genetic Markers," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(10), pages 1869-1881, October.
    5. Si Wang & Qingqing Yang, 2022. "Does weight impact adolescent mental health? Evidence from China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(10), pages 2269-2286, October.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

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