Peer effects in adolescent overweight

Trogdon, Justin G.; Nonnemaker, James; Pais, Joanne

doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2008.05.003

Cited by 338 publications

(334 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The authors find that peer effects are no longer significant with this specification. As in Trogdon et al (2008) , their analysis ignores contextual variables, contrary to our approach.…”

Section: Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 95%

“…Using Add health data, Trogdon et al (2008) include school fixed effects to account for the fact that students in a same school share a same surrounding. They also estimate their BMI peer model with an instrumental variable approach.…”

Section: Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rather, they are considered to have social interactions within a school network. This allows for the construction of a social interaction matrix that reflects how social interaction between adolescents in schools occurs in a more realistic setting (as in Trogdon et al, 2008;Renna et al, 2008). An additional originality of our paper lies in the fact that it relies upon a structural (linear-in-means) approach when relating an adolescent's behaviour to that of his peers.…”

Section: Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The evidence suggests the presence of strong peer effects in weight gain. Christakis and Fowler (2007), Trogdon et al (2008) and Renna et al (2008) seem to be unanimously pointing to the social multiplier as an important element in the obesity epidemics. 1 A social multiplier may amplify, at the aggregate level, the impact of any shock that affects obesity at the individual level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first equation relates the teenager's fast food consumption to his reference group's 4 Another potentially important channel is physical activity (Trogdon et al, 2008). 5 An indirect evidence of the relationship between eating habits and weight gain come from the literature on the (negative) effect of fast food prices on adolescent BMI (see Chou et al, 2005;Powell et al, 2007;Auld and Powell, 2008;Powell and Bao, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Peer effects, fast food consumption and adolescent weight gain

Fortin

Yazbeck

2015

Journal of Health Economics

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This paper aims at opening the black box of peer effects in adolescent weight gain. Using Add Health data on secondary schools in the U.S., we investigate whether these effects partly flow through the eating habits channel. Adolescents are assumed to interact through a friendship social network. We first propose a social interaction model of fast food consumption. Our approach allows to control for correlated effects at the network level and to solve the simultaneity (reflection) problem. We exploit results by Bramoullé, Djebbari and Fortin (2009) which show that if there are two agents who are separated by a link of distance 3 within a network (i.e., two adolescents who are not friends but are linked by two friends), peer effects are identified. The model is estimated using maximum likelihood and generalized 2SLS strategies. We also estimate a panel dynamic weight gain production function relating an adolescent's Body Mass Index (BMI) to his current fast food consumption and his lagged BMI level. Results show that there are positive significant peer effects in fast food consumption among adolescents belonging to a same friendship school network. The estimated social multiplier is 1.59. Our results also suggest that, at the network level, an extra day of weekly fast food restaurant visits increases BMI by 2.4%, when peer effects are taken into account.

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“…The authors find that peer effects are no longer significant with this specification. As in Trogdon et al (2008) , their analysis ignores contextual variables, contrary to our approach.…”

Section: Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Peer effects, fast food consumption and adolescent weight gain

Fortin

Yazbeck

2015

Journal of Health Economics

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Association of Place With Adolescent Obesity

et al. 2023

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ImportanceDespite strong evidence linking place and obesity risk, the extent to which this link is causal or reflects sorting into places is unclear.ObjectiveTo examine the association of place with adolescents’ obesity and explore potential causal pathways, such as shared environments and social contagion.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis natural experiment study used the periodic reassignment of US military servicemembers to installations as a source of exogenous variation in exposure to difference places to estimate the association between place and obesity risk. The study analyzed data from the Military Teenagers Environments, Exercise, and Nutrition Study, a cohort of adolescents in military families recruited from 2013 through 2014 from 12 large military installations in the US and followed up until 2018. Individual fixed-effects models were estimated that examined whether adolescents' exposure to increasingly obesogenic places over time was associated with increases in body mass index (BMI) and probability of overweight or obesity. These data were analyzed from October 15, 2021, through March 10, 2023.ExposureAdult obesity rate in military parent’s assigned installation county was used as a summary measure of all place-specific obesogenic influences.Main Outcomes and MeasuresOutcomes were BMI, overweight or obesity (BMI in the 85th percentile or higher), and obesity (BMI in the 95th percentile or higher). Time at installation residence and off installation residence were moderators capturing the degree of exposure to the county. County-level measures of food access, physical activity opportunities, and socioeconomic characteristics captured shared environments.ResultsA cohort of 970 adolescents had a baseline mean age of 13.7 years and 512 were male (52.8%). A 5 percentage point–increase over time in the county obesity rate was associated with a 0.19 increase in adolescents’ BMI (95% CI, 0.02-0.37) and a 0.02-unit increase in their probability of obesity (95% CI, 0-0.04). Shared environments did not explain these associations. These associations were stronger for adolescents with time at installation of 2 years or longer vs less than 2 years for BMI (0.359 vs. 0.046; P value for difference in association = .02) and for probability of overweight or obesity (0.058 vs. 0.007; P value for difference association = .02), and for adolescents who lived off installation vs on installation for BMI (0.414 vs. -0.025; P value for association = .01) and for probability of obesity (0.033 vs. -0.007; P value for association = .02).Conclusion and RelevanceIn this study, the link between place and adolescents' obesity risk is not explained by selection or shared environments. The study findings suggest social contagion as a potential causal pathway.

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Childhood body mass index in adolescent‐onset anorexia nervosa

Berkowitz

Witt

Gillberg

et al. 2016

Intl J Eating Disorders

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These findings, combined with those previously reported on the premorbid BMIs of those with bulimia nervosa, suggest that a predisposition toward elevated premorbid BMIs during childhood characterizes those who later develop anorexia or bulimia nervosa. These findings are consistent with a transdiagnostic perspective and suggest shared risk factors for AN and obesity. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2016; 49:1002-1009).

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Peer effects in adolescent overweight

Cited by 338 publications

References 31 publications

Peer effects, fast food consumption and adolescent weight gain

Peer effects, fast food consumption and adolescent weight gain

Association of Place With Adolescent Obesity

Childhood body mass index in adolescent‐onset anorexia nervosa

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