The relationship between childhood obesity and food insecurity: a nonparametric analysis
Abstract
Childhood obesity and food insecurity are major public health concerns in the United States and other developed countries. Research on the relationship between the two has provided mixed results across a variety of data sets and empirical methods. Common throughout this research, however, is the use of parametric frameworks for empirical analyses. This study moves beyond parametric methods by examining the relationship between childhood obesity and food insecurity among low-income children with nonparametric regression techniques. We examine data from the Child Development Supplement (CDS) of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a nationally representative data set from the US. Consistent with recent work, our parametric analyses indicate that there is no statistically significant relationship between childhood obesity and food insecurity. In contrast, our nonparametric results indicate that the probability of being obese varies markedly with the level of food insecurity being experienced by the child. Moreover, this relationship differs across relevant subgroups including those defined by gender, race/ethnicity and income. Fully understanding the relationship between childhood obesity and food insecurity has significant policy implications.
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The majority of children in the USA fail to meet national guidelines for fruit consumption by considerable margins.
“The majority of children in the USA fail to meet national guidelines for fruit consumption by considerable margins (57,59) .”
From ‘It's just so much waste.’ A qualitative investigation of food waste in a universal free School Breakfast Program (2015) · cites this paper as [59]
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- Authors
- Kuku, O., Garasky, S., & Gundersen, C.
- Affiliations
- Iowa State University (US)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Corresponding author
- Garasky, Steven
- ORCID
- Gundersen, Craig
- Venue
- Applied Economics
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2011-05-24
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 21
- Pages
- 2667-2677
- ISSN
- 0003-6846 (ISSN-L)
- 1466-4283
- OpenAlex
- W2049805958
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 3.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Applied Economics (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Keywords
- childhood obesity, food insecurity, low-income children, nonparametric regression, Panel Study of Income Dynamics, subgroup differences, gender differences, race and ethnicity, income, child nutrition
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