The association between overweight and household expenditure in adult women living in poor rural communities in Mexico

Abstract

We investigated the association between women’s weight and household per adult equivalent expenditure (proxy for permanent income) in 235 rural villages in southern Mexico. We used data from 5000 non-pregnant women (18–49 y) in families in the 2 lowest Mexican income deciles. The instrumental variables regression controlled for age, height, schooling, ethnicity and village (fixed) effects. The prevalence of O&O (BMI>25) was 60%, with 25% of women being obese (BMI>30). Household expenditure was significantly (p<0.001) associated with body weight: for a 10% increase in expenditure body weight increased by 1%. A 10% increase in expenditure was thus associated with a 2.7 and 1.7 percentage point increase in the prevalence of O&O and obesity respectively. The inclusion of the village fixed effects (even though significant) did not alter the expenditure coefficient considerably. Our findings show that the prevalence of O&O in the poorest Mexican rural villages is alarmingly high. Also, O&O increases significantly with increasing expenditure in these very poor communities. The limited importance of the fixed effects indicates that this association holds across villages and is not simply because overweight and obese women live in particular villages. Funded by SEDESOL (contract # SSPPE-AD-005-04).