Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T17:54:06.510Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Deprivation or discrimination? Comparing two explanations for the reverse income–obesity gradient in the US and South Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2020

SeungYong Han  and
Daniel Hruschka Open the ORCID record for Daniel Hruschka [Opens in a new window]
SeungYong Han
Affiliation:
Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, Arizona State University, USA
Daniel Hruschka*
Affiliation:
School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: Daniel.Hruschka@asu.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In high-income countries, poverty is often associated with higher average body mass index (BMI). To account for this reverse gradient, deprivation theories posit that declining economic resources make it more difficult to maintain a healthy weight. By contrast, discrimination theories argue that anti-fat discrimination in hiring and marriage sorts heavier individuals into lower-income households. This study assesses competing predictions of these theories by examining how household income in representative samples from South Korea (2007–2014, N=20,823) and the US (1999–2014, N=6395) is related to BMI in two key contrasting groups: (1) currently-married and (2) never-married individuals. As expected by anti-fat discrimination in marriage, the reverse gradient is observed among currently-married women but not among never-married women in both countries. Also consistent with past studies no evidence was found for a reverse gradient among men. These findings are consistent with anti-fat discrimination in marriage as a key cause of the reverse gradient and raise serious challenges to deprivation accounts as well as explanations based on anti-fat discrimination in labour markets.

Keywords

Reverse gradientIncomeBody mass index
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adler, NE and Newman, K (2002) Socioeconomic disparities in health, pathways and policies. Health Affairs (Project Hope) 21(2), 60–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aggarwal, A, Monsivais, P, Cook, AJ and Drewnowski, A (2011) Does diet cost mediate the relation between socioeconomic position and diet quality? European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 65(9), 1059–1066.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Averett, S and Korenman, S (1996) The economic reality of the beauty myth. Journal of Human Resources 31(2), 304–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Averett, SL, Sikora, A and Argys, LM (2008) For better or worse: relationship status and body mass index. Economics & Human Biology 6(3), 330–349.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baum, CL and Ford, WF (2004) The wage effects of obesity: a longitudinal study. Health Economics 13(9), 885–899.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blatt, AD, Roe, LS and Rolls, BJ (2011) Increasing protein content of meals and its effect on daily energy intake. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 11(2), 290–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bozoyan, C and Wolbring, T (2011) Fat, Muscles, and Wages. Economics & Human Biology 9(4), 356–363.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brooks, RC, Simpson, SJ and Raubenheimer, D (2010) The price of protein, combining evolutionary and economic analysis to understanding excessive energy consumption. Obesity Reviews 11(12), 887–894.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, PJ and Konner, M (1987) An anthropological perspective on obesity. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences of the USA 499(1), 29–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bujnowski, D, Xun, P, Daviglus, ML, Van Horn, L, He, K and Stamler, J (2011) Longitudinal association between animal and vegetable protein intake and obesity among men in the United States. The Chicago Western Electric Study. Journal of American Dietetic Association 111(8), 1150–1155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burdett, K and Coles, MG (2001) Transplants and implants: the economics of self-improvement. International Economic Review 42(3), 597–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caliendo, M and Lee, WS (2013) Fat chance! Obesity and the transition from unemployment to employment. Economics & Human Biology 11(2), 121–133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carmalt, JH, Cawley, J, Joyner, K and Sobal, J (2008) Body weight and matching with a physically attractive romantic partner. Journal of Marriage and Family 70(5), 1287–1296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cawley, J (2004) The impact of obesity on wages. Journal of Human Resources 34(2), 451–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CDC (2014) About the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. URL: http,//www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/about_nhanes.htm (accessed 5th September 2016).Google Scholar
Chen, EY and Brown, M (2005) Obesity stigma in sexual relationships. Obesity Research 13(8), 1393–1397.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chiappori, PA, Oreffice, S and Quintana-Domeque, C (2012) Fatter attraction: anthropometric and socioeconomic matching on the marriage market. Journal of Political Economy 120(4), 659–695.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Choy, CC, Hawley, NL, Naseri, T and McGarvey, ST (2020) Associations between socioeconomic resources and adiposity traits in adults: evidence from Samoa. SSM – Population Health 10, 100556.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conley, D and Glauber, R (2007) Gender, body mass, and socioeconomic status: new evidence from the PSID. Advances in Health Economics and Health Services Research 17, 253–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crandall, CS and Schiffhauer, KL (1998) Anti-fat prejudice, beliefs, values, and American culture. Obesity Research 6(6), 458–460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crosnoe, R and Muller, C (2004) Body mass index, academic achievement, and school context: examining the educational experiences of adolescents at risk of obesity. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 45(4), 393–407.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dinsa, GD, Goryakin, Y, Fumagalli, E and Suhrcke, M (2012) Obesity and socioeconomic status in developing countries: a systematic review. Obesity Reviews 13(11), 1067–1079.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drewnowski, A (2009) Obesity, diets, and social inequalities. Nutrition Reviews 67 (Supplement 1), S36–S39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drewnowski, A and Darmon, N (2005) The economics of obesity: dietary energy density and energy cost. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 82(1), 265S–273S.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drewnowski, A and Specter, SE (2004) Poverty and obesity: the role of energy density and energy costs. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 79(1), 6–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duffey, KJ and Popkin, BM (2011) Energy density, portion size, and eating occasions: contributions to increased energy intake in the United States, 1977–2006. PLoS Medicine 8(6), 1–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eaton, SB, Konner, M and Shostak, M (1988) Stone agers in the fast lane: chronic degenerative diseases in evolutionary perspective. American Journal of Medicine 84(4), 739–749.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flint, SW and Snook, J (2014) Obesity and discrimination: the next ‘big issue’? International Journal of Discrimination and the Law 14(3), 183–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giskes, K, Lenthe, FJ, Turrell, G, Kamphuis, C, Brug, J and Mackenbach, JP (2008) Socioeconomic position at different stages of the life course and its influence on body weight and weight gain in adulthood: a longitudinal study with 13-year follow-up. Obesity 16(6), 1377–1381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glass, CM, Haas, SA and Reither, EN (2010) The skinny on success: body mass, gender and occupational standing across the life course. Social Forces 88(4), 1777–1806.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gordon-Larsen, P, Nelson, MC, Page, P and Popkin, BM (2006) Inequality in the built environment underlies key health disparities in physical activity and obesity. Pediatrics 117(2), 417–424.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greenberg, BS, Eastin, M, Hofschire, L, Lachlan, K and Brownell, KD (2003) Portrayals of overweight and obese individuals on commercial television. American Journal of Public Health 93(8), 1342–1348.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Han, E, Norton, EC and Powell, LM (2011) Direct and indirect effects of body weight on adult wages. Economics & Human Biology 9(4), 381–392.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Han, E, Norton, EC and Stearns, SC (2009) Weight and wages: fat versus lean paychecks. Health Economics 18(5), 535–548.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
House, JS (2002) Understanding social factors and inequalities in health: 20th century progress and 21st century prospects. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 43(2), 125–142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hruschka, DJ (2012) Do economic constraints on food choice make people fat? A critical review of two hypotheses for the poverty–obesity paradox. American Journal of Human Biology 24(3), 277–285.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hruschka, DJ (2017) From thin to fat and back again: a dual process model of the big body mass reversal. In Anderson-Fye, E and Brewis, AA (eds) Fat Planet, Obesity, Culture, and Symbolic Body Capital. SAR Press and University of New Mexico Press, pp. 15–32.Google Scholar
Hruschka, DJ and Brewis, AA (2013) Absolute wealth and world region strongly predict overweight among women (ages 18–49) in 360 populations across 36 developing countries. Economics & Human Biology 11(3), 337–344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hruschka, DJ and Hadley, C (2016) How much do universal anthropometric standards bias the global monitoring of obesity and undernutrition? Obesity Reviews 17, 1030–1039.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hruschka, DJ, Hadley, C and Brewis, AA (2014) Disentangling basal and accumulated body mass for cross-population comparisons. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 153(4), 542–550.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hruschka, DJ, Rush, EC and Brewis, AA (2013) Population differences in the relationship between height, weight, and adiposity: an application of Burton’s model. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 151(1), 68–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Judge, TA and Cable, DM (2011) When it comes to pay, do the thin win? The effect of weight on pay for men and women. Journal of Applied Psychology 96(1), 95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jung, J and Lee, SH (2006) Cross-cultural comparisons of appearance self-schema, body image, self-esteem, and dieting behavior between Korean and US women. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal 34(4), 350–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kassirer, JP and Angell, M (1998) Losing weight – an ill-fated New Year’s resolution. New England Journal of Medicine 338(1), 52–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klos, LA and Sobal, J (2013) Marital status and body weight: weight perception, and weight management among US adults. Eating Behaviors 14(4), 500–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KCDC (2007) The Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES IV–1, 2, and 3). Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Google Scholar
KCDC (2010) The Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES V–1, 2, and 3). Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Google Scholar
KCDC (2013) The Sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VI–1 and 2). Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Google Scholar
KCDC (2014) About the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey: Survey Overview. Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. URL: https,//knhanes.cdc.go.kr/knhanes/eng/index.do (accessed 5th September 2016).Google Scholar
Lin, Y, Bolca, S, Vandevijvere, S, De Vreise, S, Mouratidou, T, De Neve, M, Polet, A et al. (2011) Plant and animal protein intake and its association with overweight and obesity among the Belgian population. British Journal of Nutrition 105(7), 1106–1116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McClintock, EA (2014) Beauty and status: the illusion of exchange in partner selection. American Sociological Review 79(4), 575–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malcolm, M and Kaya, I (2016) Selection works both ways: BMI and marital formation among young women. Review of Economics of the Household 14(2), 293–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marini, M, Sriram, N, Schnabel, K, Maliszewski, N, Devos, T, Ekehammar, B et al. (2013) Overweight people have low levels of implicit weight bias, but overweight nations have high levels of implicit weight bias. PloS One 8(12), e83543.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mason, K (2012) The unequal weight of discrimination: gender, body size, and income inequality. Social Problems 59(3), 411–435.Google Scholar
Monteiro, CA, Conde, WL, Lu, B and Popkin, BM (2004) Obesity and inequities in health in the developing world. International Journal of Obesity 28, 1181–1186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monteiro, CA, Conde, WL and Popkin, BM (2001) Independent effects of income and education on the risk of obesity in the Brazilian adult population. Journal of Nutrition 131(3), 881S–886S.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morris, S (2007) The impact of obesity on employment. Labour Economics 14(3), 413–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mosca, I (2013) Body Mass Index, waist circumference and employment: evidence from older Irish adults. Economics & Human Biology 11(4), 522–533.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mukhopadhyay, S (2008) Do women value marriage more? The effect of obesity on cohabitation and marriage in the USA. Review of Economics of the Household 6(2), 111–126.Google Scholar
Olafsdottir, S (2007) Fundamental causes of health disparities, stratification, the welfare state, and health in the United States and Iceland. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 48(3), 239–253.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oreffice, S and Quintana-Domeque, C (2010) Anthropometry and socioeconomics among couples: evidence in the United States. Economics & Human Biology 8(3), 373–384.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oreffice, S and Quintana-Domeque, C (2016) Beauty, body size and wages: evidence from a unique data set. Economics & Human Biology 22, 24–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pampel, FC, Krueger, PM and Denney, JT (2010) Socioeconomic disparities in health behaviors. Annual Review of Sociology 36, 349–370.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pan, J, Qin, X and Liu, GG (2012) The impact of body size on urban employment: evidence from China. China Economic Review 27, 249–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, TJ, Power, C, Logan, S and Summerbelt, CD (1999) Childhood predictors of adult obesity: a systematic review. International Journal of Obesity 23 (Supplement 8), S1–S107.Google ScholarPubMed
Phelan, JC, Link, BG and Tehranifar, P (2010) Social conditions as fundamental causes of health inequalities: theory, evidence, and policy implications. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 51 (Supplemnet), S28–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ponzo, M and Scoppa, V (2015) Trading height for education in the marriage market. American Journal of Human Biology 27(2), 164–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pudrovska, T, Reither, EN, Logan, ES and Sherman-Wilkins, KJ (2014) Gender and reinforcing associations between socioeconomic disadvantage and body mass over the life course. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 55(3), 283–301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Puhl, RM, Andreyeva, T and Brownell, KD (2008) Perceptions of weight discrimination, prevalence and comparison to race and gender discrimination in America. International Journal of Obesity 32(6), 992–1000.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Puhl, RM and Brownell, KD (2003) Psychosocial origins of obesity stigma: toward changing a powerful and pervasive bias. Obesity Reviews 4(4), 213–227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Puhl, RM and Heuer, CA (2009) The stigma of obesity: a review and update. Obesity 17(5), 941–964.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sassler, S and Joyner, K (2011) Social exchange and the progression of sexual relationships in emerging adulthood. Social Forces 90(1), 223–245.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwekendiek, D, Minhee, Y and Ulijaszek, S (2013) On slimming pills, growth hormones, and plastic surgery: the socioeconomic value of the body in South Korea. In Schwekendiek, D et al. (eds) When Culture Impacts Health, Global Lessons for Effective Health Research. Academic Press, pp. 141–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, SJ and Raubenheicmer, D (2005) Obesity: the protein leverage hypothesis. Obesity Reviews 6(2), 133–142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sobal, J and Stunkard, AJ (1989) Socioeconomic status and obesity: a review of the literature. Psychological Bulletin 105(2), 260–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stevens, G, Owens, D and Schaefer, EC (1990) Education and attractiveness in marriage choices. Social Psychology Quarterly 53(1), 62–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Subramanian, SV, Perkins, JM, Ozaltin, E and Smith, GD (2011) Weight of nations: a socioeconomic analysis of women in low- to middle-income countries. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 93(2), 413–421.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taylor, PA and Glenn, ND (1976) The utility of education and attractiveness for females’ status attainment through marriage. American Sociological Review 41(3), 484–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Udry, JR (1977) The importance of being beautiful: a reexamination and racial comparison. American Journal of Sociology 83(1), 154–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Umberson, D, Liu, H and Powers, D (2009) Marital status, marital transitions, and body weight. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 50(3), 327–343.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vinknes, KJ, de Vogel, S, Elshorbagy, AK, Nurk, E, Drevon, CA, Gjesdal, CG et al. (2011) Dietary intake of protein is positively associated with percent body fat in middle-aged and older adults. Journal of Nutrition 141(3), 440–446.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wada, R and Tekin, E (2010) Body composition and wages. Economics & Human Biology 8(2), 242–254.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed