Body Mass Index, Perceived Health, and Happiness: Their Determinants and Structural Relationships

Cornelisse-Vermaat, J.R.; Antonides, Gerrit; Ophem, J.A.C. van; Brink, H. Maassen van den

doi:10.1007/s11205-005-4097-7

Cited by 40 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…10 A large 10-point move up in BMI is associated in the cross-section with only a fairly small worsening, by around 0.3 points, in GHQ mental health. The negative sign in these equations is consistent with cross-sectional happiness evidence for the United States in Felton and Graham (2005), Switzerland in Stutzer (2006), and the Netherlands in Cornelisse-Vermaat et al (2006), and also with some of the longitudinal associations in Roberts et al (2000;.…”

Section: Some Evidencesupporting

confidence: 78%

Book Review Feature: Two Reviews ofThe Challenge of Affulence: Self‐Control and Well‐Being in the United States and Britain Since 1950

Oswald

Powdthavee

2007

The Economic Journal

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Is affluence a good thing? The book The Challenge of Affluence by Avner Offer (2006) argues that economic prosperity weakens self-control and undermines human well-being. Consistent with a pessimistic view, we show that psychological distress has been rising through time in modern Great Britain. Taking over-eating as an example, our data reveal that half the British population view themselves as overweight, and that happiness and mental health are worse among fatter people in both Britain and Germany. A 10-point move up in body mass index (BMI) is associated in the cross-section with a drop in psychological health of approximately 0.3 GHQ points. Comparisons also matter. For a given level of BMI, we find that people who are educated or who have high income are more likely to view themselves as overweight. We discuss problems of inference and argue that longitudinal data on BMI are needed. We suggest a theory of imitation --where utility depends on relative weight --in which there can be obesity spirals after only small drops in the price of food.

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Section: Some Evidencesupporting

confidence: 78%

Book Review Feature: Two Reviews ofThe Challenge of Affulence: Self‐Control and Well‐Being in the United States and Britain Since 1950

Oswald

Powdthavee

2007

The Economic Journal

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“…The average correlation between age and Lsat, CLAS and SWB was r = 0.10, with a high of r = 0.14 for CLAS and a low of r = 0.08 for Lsat and SWB. The Body Mass Index has often been found negatively correlated with a variety of health status measures, e.g., see Michalos et al (2005), and Cornelisse-Vermaat et al (2006). This is the first time it has been used in a study with our seven overall life assessment variables, and its uniformly negative association with six of the seven is an important finding.…”

Section: Bivariate Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 62%

Impact of Arts-Related Activities on the Perceived Quality of Life

Michalos

Kahlke

2008

Soc Indic Res

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“…Here X is an n Â K matrix of control variables (Frey and Stutzer, 2000;Cornlisse-Vermatt et al, 2006;Blanchflower, 2008), some of which are endogenous and thus EX 0 u 6 ¼ 0.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%