The role of risk propensity in smokers and overweight people

Abstract

IntroductionThe aim of this study is to investigate the nature of the link associating the risk propensity of smoking and overweight. For example, a person who is a smoker and obese does not have to be more prone to risk than another person who is obese and a non-smoker. Material and methodsThe data were taken from the German Questionnaire on Personality and Daily (Cross section for the period 2005). This questionnaire was selected because it collects individual data on the sociodemographic characteristic, behaviours, risk attitudes, lottery games, and health status. Our main contribution is to analyze the role of risk propensity taking into account smoking and overweight. ResultsRisk propensity encourages smoking, and smoking and overweight are positively associated. The greater the role of the unobserved characteristics, the lower the correlation between smoking and overweight is. Although the risk propensity is an important determining factor of individual behaviour (smoking and overweight), its inclusion does not decrease the influence of personal circumstances and conditions. The need to define other measurements to be able to analyze the risk propensity of risk specific to risk behaviour is also highlighted. DiscussionTo reduce the number of smokers it would require interventions in life styles. Given that overweight is an important determining factor in the decision to smoke, encouraging healthy behaviours, such as physical exercise or balanced diets, could improve the health status of the population in reducing obesity rates, and consequently the number of smokers.