Tafreschi Darjusch
Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Econ Hum Biol. 2015 Jan;16:115-34. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2014.02.001. Epub 2014 Mar 6.
Existing theories predict the income gradient of individual body weight to change sign from positive to negative in process of economic development. However, there are only few empirical studies which test this hypothesis. This paper adds to the literature on that topic by investigating the case of China. Using individual and community data from 1991 to 2009 waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey regression analyses suggest that after controlling for important confounding factors (1) higher income is positively related to future growth of individuals' BMI in less developed areas (i.e. BMI growth is 0.7-1.5 percentage points higher when comparing the richest with the poorest individuals), but negatively related to BMI growth in more developed areas (i.e. BMI growth is 0.8-1.6 percentage points lower for the richest individuals), and (2) that concentrations of overweight are "trickling down" to lower income ranks as regions become more developed. Moreover, the reversal of the income gradient appears to happen at earlier stages of development for females.
现有理论预测，在经济发展过程中，个人体重的收入梯度会从正向负转变。然而，仅有少数实证研究检验了这一假设。本文通过研究中国的案例，为该主题的文献增添了内容。利用1991年至2009年中国健康与营养调查的个人和社区数据，回归分析表明，在控制了重要的混杂因素后：（1）在欠发达地区，较高收入与个人体重指数（BMI）的未来增长呈正相关（即最富有的人与最贫穷的人相比，BMI增长高0.7 - 1.5个百分点），但在较发达地区与BMI增长呈负相关（即最富有的人的BMI增长低0.8 - 1.6个百分点）；（2）随着地区变得更加发达，超重人群的分布正“向下渗透”到较低收入阶层。此外，女性收入梯度的逆转似乎发生在发展的早期阶段。
