Are Spanish Surveys Ready to Detect the Social Factors of Obesity?

Abstract

The social origins of obesity are now recognised: a problem that is initially biological is today a public health problem with a social origin. This paper raises the question of whether the official statistical sources used to understand changes in diet are able to detect this shift in analysis. After reviewing the social factors that explain obesity, we examine the official Spanish statistics that can inform about dietary changes: the ENS National Health Survey, the EPF Family Budget Survey, and the EET Time Use Survey, all carried out by the Spanish Statistical Office. All of them include socio-demographic variables and some locational variables. However, the lack of health variables in the economic survey and the lack of social variables in the health survey prevent the gathering of reliable scientific evidence to offer solid support in stopping the obesity epidemic. Food has become particularly important as one of the main areas where unhealthy decisions and choices involve high risk; the situation also demonstrates the relationship between social inequality and obesity. Obesity is now understood in a radically different way and the origin of the problem lies in social and cultural factors. The current surveys do not provide the resources to capture the social causality of obesity, but slight modifications would help expand their capabilities and offer reliable scientific evidence to stop the obesity epidemic.