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Article
Over-Nutrition and Changing Health Status in High Income Countries
Forum for Health Economics & Policy
  • Wallace E. Huffman, Iowa State University
  • Sonya K. Huffman, Iowa State University
  • Kyrre Rickertsen, Norwegian University of Life Sciences and Norwegian Agricultural Research Institute
  • Abebayehu Tegene, United States Department of Agriculture
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
1-1-2010
DOI
10.2202/1558-9544.1181
Abstract

As per capita incomes in developed countries have grown over the past three decades, overnutrition leading to obesity and elevated health risks for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some forms of cancer has occurred. We use economic and econometric models to identify the impact of food prices on the aggregate demand for calories and the supply of health, as reflected in mortality rates. Our models are fitted to unique panel data for 18 developed countries over 1971-2001, a period when the relative price of food first rose and then declined steadily. Some findings, using de-trended data, are that a lower real price of food, of other purchased consumer goods and of time increase the demand for calories, one cause of energy imbalance, and the supply of mortality associated with obesity. These prices do not affect the rate of non-obesity-related mortality. Caloric intake is a normal good, contributing to energy imbalance as income increases, but higher incomes do reduce mortality risk. However, higher labor force participation rates, largely associated with rising numbers of working women, and a higher child dependency ratio lead to a higher rate of obesity-related mortality. An implication of our results is that further reductions in the price of food in developed countries can be expected to have a net negative impact on health as reflected in a higher mortality rate due to diseases that are linked to obesity— diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and most forms of cancer.

Comments

This is an article from Forum for Health Economics & Policy 13 (2010): 2, doi: 10.2202/1558-9544.1181. Posted with permission.

Copyright Owner
De Gruyter
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Wallace E. Huffman, Sonya K. Huffman, Kyrre Rickertsen and Abebayehu Tegene. "Over-Nutrition and Changing Health Status in High Income Countries" Forum for Health Economics & Policy Vol. 13 Iss. 1 (2010) p. 2
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/wallace-huffman/56/