Global Trends in Child Obesity: Are Figures Converging?
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Department of Economic Analysis, University of Zaragoza, 50005 Zaragoza, Spain
2
Department of Applied Economics, University of Zaragoza, 50005 Zaragoza, Spain
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(24), 9252; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249252
Received: 6 November 2020
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Revised: 7 December 2020
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Accepted: 9 December 2020
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Published: 10 December 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applied Health Econometrics)
Childhood obesity has become one of the most serious global health challenges of our time. The combined prevalence of overweight and obesity has rapidly increased worldwide during the last two decades, especially in some developing countries where obesity is reaching levels on a par with some industrialized countries, or even higher. This fast growth has occurred especially in countries in the midst of rapid social-economic transitions. Most international comparisons focus on the adult population while analyses focusing on the child population are more limited. Using the methodology developed by Phillips and Sul, this paper studies the worldwide evolution of children’s body mass index (BMI), overweight and obesity prevalence for a large sample of countries during the period 1975–2016. Our results indicate that the figures for BMI or the prevalence of obesity in different countries do not converge, while the opposite is the case for overweight prevalence in children. Furthermore, there is a non-linear relationship between obesity and income or human capital, indicating that low and middle-income countries require a strong initiative for health policies targeting obesity prevention.
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Keywords:
BMI; child obesity; convergence; clubs; gender differences
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MDPI and ACS Style
González-Álvarez, M.A.; Lázaro-Alquézar, A.; Simón-Fernández, M.B. Global Trends in Child Obesity: Are Figures Converging? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 9252. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249252
AMA Style
González-Álvarez MA, Lázaro-Alquézar A, Simón-Fernández MB. Global Trends in Child Obesity: Are Figures Converging? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(24):9252. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249252
Chicago/Turabian StyleGonzález-Álvarez, María A., Angelina Lázaro-Alquézar, and María B. Simón-Fernández. 2020. "Global Trends in Child Obesity: Are Figures Converging?" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 24: 9252. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249252
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