Explaining the Female Black-White Obesity Gap: A Decomposition Analysis of Proximal Causes

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. There exists remarkably large differences in body weights and obesity prevalence between black and white women in the US, and crucially these differences are a significant contributor to black-white inequalities in health. In this paper, we investigate the most proximal explanations for the weight gap, namely differences in diet and exercise. More specifically, we decompose black-white differences in body mass index and waist-to-height ratio into components reflecting black-white differences in energy intake and energy expenditure. The analysis indicates that over consumption is much more important than a lack of exercise in explaining the weight gap, which suggests that diet interventions will have to play a fundamental role if the weight gap between black and white women is to decline.JEL Classification: I1, J11

How important are determinants of obesity measured at the individual level for explaining geographic variation in body mass index distributions? Observational evidence from Canada using Quantile Regression and Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition

“…US researchers have decomposed BMI across African–American and Caucasian males and females,37 38 concluding that unexplained differences between African–American and Caucasian were associated with one or a combination of potential factors including culture, genetics or unobserved (unmeasured) confounders. Other examples internationally have decomposed obesity between ethnic groups (eg, Chinese and Malays),39 between countries (eg, Italy and Spain),40 across sexes41 or over time42 and indicate that there can be large unexplained differences over the groups under consideration.…”

Do African American Women Require Fewer Calories to Maintain Weight?

“…2–11 Potential reasons for the greater burden of obesity in AA women include environmental, physiologic, and genetic influences. 1,11–14 …”

Relation of longitudinal changes in body mass index with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk scores in middle-aged black and white adults: the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study

“…energy intake) and exercise (e.g. energy expenditure) (33). Despite similar adherence to diet intake and exercise among black and white women enrolled in intervention trials, less weight loss has been reported among blacks (34, 35).…”

“…Therefore, reducing obesity prevalence to enhance cardiovascular health among blacks especially women, will require substantial public health efforts. These may include adapting culturally-tailored intensive lifestyle interventions (15, 33), implementing programs that improve ASCVD risk education, ensuring access to healthy foods and enhancing the built environment to promote physical activity.…”