Research Program in Development Studies, Princeton University, United States.
Econ Hum Biol. 2009 Dec;7(3):271-82. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2009.07.002. Epub 2009 Jul 17.
Globally, men and women face markedly different risks of obesity. In all but of handful of (primarily Western European) countries, obesity is much more prevalent among women than men. We examine several potential explanations for this phenomenon. We analyze differences between men and women in reports and effects of potential underlying causes of obesity-childhood and adult poverty, depression, and attitudes about obesity. We evaluate the evidence for each explanation using data collected in an urban African township in the Cape Town metropolitan area. Three factors explain the greater obesity rates we find among women. Women who were nutritionally deprived as children are significantly more likely to be obese as adults, while men who were deprived as children face no greater risk. In addition, women of higher adult socioeconomic status are significantly more likely to be obese, which is not true for men. These two factors - childhood circumstances and adult SES - can fully explain the difference in obesity rates between men and women that we find in our sample. More speculatively, in South Africa, women's perceptions of an 'ideal' female body are larger than men's perceptions of the 'ideal' male body, and individuals with larger 'ideal' body images are significantly more likely to be obese.
在全球范围内，男性和女性面临着明显不同的肥胖风险。除了少数（主要是西欧）国家外，肥胖在女性中的发病率远高于男性。我们探讨了这一现象的几个潜在解释。我们分析了肥胖的潜在根本原因（儿童期和成年期贫困、抑郁以及对肥胖的态度）在男性和女性报告和影响方面的差异。我们使用开普敦大都市区一个城市非洲城镇收集的数据评估了每种解释的证据。有三个因素可以解释我们在女性中发现的更高肥胖率。儿童时期营养不足的女性成年后患肥胖症的可能性明显更高，而儿童时期营养不足的男性则没有更高的风险。此外，社会经济地位较高的成年女性更有可能肥胖，而男性则不然。这两个因素——儿童时期的情况和成年期的社会经济地位——可以完全解释我们在样本中发现的男性和女性肥胖率之间的差异。更推测性地说，在南非，女性对“理想”女性身体的看法大于男性对“理想”男性身体的看法，而具有更大“理想”身体形象的个体肥胖的可能性明显更高。
