He Qinying, Li Xun, Wang Rui
College of Economics and Management, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.
School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, Luojia Hill, Wuhan, 430072, China.
Econ Hum Biol. 2018 May;29:56-63. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2018.02.001. Epub 2018 Feb 17.
Childhood obesity in China has been increasingly cited as a major public health issue in recent decades. The effect of grandparents on grandchildren's weight outcome is under-analyzed. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we examine the effect of grandparents' coresidence on childhood weight outcome with a sample of 2-13-year-old children in China. We use instrumental variables to address the potential endogeneity of grandparents' coresidence. We show that the effect of grandparents' coresidence on childhood weight outcome is significantly positive. Grandparents' coresidence affects a grandchild's weight outcome through changes in dietary patterns and physical activity. The effects on dietary patterns exist in urban areas and significantly lower in rural areas. Grandparents' coresidence decreases physical activity more in rural areas than in urban areas. Furthermore, the effects of coresidence on protein intake and physical activities of children above 6 are significantly higher for males than females. A robustness check, including an ordered logit model with a body mass index category and estimation with additional data, validates our findings.
近几十年来，中国儿童肥胖问题越来越被视为一个主要的公共卫生问题。祖父母对孙辈体重结果的影响尚未得到充分分析。利用中国健康与营养调查的数据，我们以中国2至13岁儿童为样本，研究了祖父母同住对儿童体重结果的影响。我们使用工具变量来解决祖父母同住可能存在的内生性问题。我们发现，祖父母同住对儿童体重结果有显著的正向影响。祖父母同住通过饮食模式和身体活动的变化影响孙辈的体重结果。对饮食模式的影响在城市地区存在，而在农村地区显著较低。祖父母同住对农村地区身体活动的减少幅度大于城市地区。此外，同住对6岁以上儿童蛋白质摄入量和身体活动的影响，男性显著高于女性。包括使用体重指数类别进行有序逻辑回归模型以及使用额外数据进行估计在内的稳健性检验验证了我们的研究结果。
