Department of Economics, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9SL, UK; National Institute of Economic and Social Research, 2 Dean Trench Street, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HE, UK.
Centre for Health Economics, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK..
Econ Hum Biol. 2022 Aug;46:101153. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101153. Epub 2022 Jun 26.
Access to fast food has often been blamed for the rise in obesity which in turn has motivated policies to curb the spread of fast food. However, robust evidence in this area is scarce, particularly using data outside of the US. It is difficult to estimate a causal effect of fast food given spatial sorting and ever-present exposure. We investigate whether the residential access to fast food increased BMI of adolescents at a time when fast food restaurants started to open in the UK. The time period presents the study with large spatial and temporal differences in exposure as well as plausibly exogenous variation. We merge data on the location and timing of the first openings of all fast food outlets in the UK from 1968-1986, with data on objectively measured BMI from the 1970 British Cohort Survey. The relationship between adolescent BMI and the distance from the respondents' homes and time since opening, is studied using OLS and Instrumental Variables regression. We find that fast food exposure had no effect on BMI. Extensive robustness checks do not change our conclusion.
快餐的可及性常常被归咎于肥胖率的上升，而肥胖率的上升又促使各国政府出台政策来遏制快餐的传播。然而，这方面的有力证据却很少，特别是在美国以外的数据。鉴于空间排序和始终存在的暴露，很难估计快餐的因果效应。我们调查了在英国的快餐店开始营业的时候，快餐店的居住可及性是否会增加青少年的 BMI。这段时间暴露在空间和时间上都有很大的差异，而且可能存在外生变化。我们将英国所有快餐连锁店开业时间和地点的数据与 1970 年英国队列调查中客观测量的 BMI 数据进行了合并。使用 OLS 和工具变量回归来研究青少年 BMI 与距离受访者家庭的距离和开业时间的关系。我们发现，快餐的暴露对 BMI 没有影响。广泛的稳健性检验并没有改变我们的结论。
