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Advances in Childhood Overweight and Obesity Research

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Children's Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 1711

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Global Health Institute and School of Public Health, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710061, China
Interests: obesity and chronic disease prevention and control; health disparities; nutritional epidemiology; health promotion; global health
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Stanford Health Care, MC 5554, Stanford, CA, USA
Interests: obesity; diabetes; chronic diseases; health equity; healthcare; global health

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The obesity epidemic has become a serious public health problem in many countries worldwide and is a major public health challenge of the 21st century. Overweight and obese children are likely to maintain their status into adulthood. Obesity increases the risks of developing chronic diseases such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnoea and respiratory problems, and certain cancers. The prevention of obesity among young people is the key to fight the growing globle epidemic of obesity and non-communicable diseases. The development of obesity in childhood has many long-term consequences. A good understanding of the etiology and effective intervention approaches on childhood obesity is essencial to face this serious global public health challenge.

The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight pioneering research that explores the understanding of and response to childhood obesity, including its related health consequences. This includes, but is not limited to, research on the trends, risk factors, consequences, and interventions to prevent or manage obesity; obesity policy and program evaluation; and using digital health, systems science, or other innovative methodologies to address childhood obesity. This Special Issue invites researchers of any disciplines who focus on childhood obesity research, including but not limited to medicine, public health, public policy, economics, social science, and urban planning, to submit their work.

Prof. Dr. Youfa Wang
Dr. Alice Fang Yan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • childhood overweight
  • obesity
  • risk factors
  • intervention
  • methodology
  • environment
  • digital health

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

25 pages, 2767 KiB  
Article
Maternal Employment and Child Malnutrition in Ecuador
by José Andrade and Joan Gil
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(13), 6253; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20136253 - 29 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1383
Abstract
Background: This paper estimates the causal impact of maternal employment on childhood malnutrition status in Ecuador to understand the trade-off between the time mothers devote to work and the time they dedicate to child-caring activities. Methods: We use the instrumental variables (IV) approach [...] Read more.
Background: This paper estimates the causal impact of maternal employment on childhood malnutrition status in Ecuador to understand the trade-off between the time mothers devote to work and the time they dedicate to child-caring activities. Methods: We use the instrumental variables (IV) approach and exogenous cantonal variation in maternal labor market conditions to account for the potential endogeneity of mothers’ employment. The analysis employs the Ecuadorian National Health and Nutrition Survey 2018 and the Living Conditions Survey 2014. Results: The IV estimations indicate that maternal employment increases the probability of having stunted children by between 4.2 and 18.1 percent, while no significant effect is found in the case of children suffering from wasting, being underweight, or being overweight. The effect of maternal employment on stunting is stronger among mothers with high education and living in high-income households. Inconclusive effects of mothers’ overweight status are reported. The results are robust to several robustness checks. Conclusions: Overall, our findings suggest that the additional income that a working mother may obtain (the income effect) does not offset the loss of time available for direct childcare (the time constraint) in terms of child health status, and this effect is even more apparent for more affluent and more educated mothers. Government interventions, including effective conditional cash transfers and/or in-kind family policies, intended to reduce the cost of raising children among vulnerable families appear to be aligned with our findings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Childhood Overweight and Obesity Research)
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