However, as acknowledged by the authors, the
data they used are limited to obesity statistics
for a few countries and a few years.
Obesity and overweight rates are increasing
in several countries, particularly in the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) member countries (see
figure 1). No other known study, however,
has examined the factors that affect overweight
and obesity rates in OECD countries.
To fill this void, we analyze the effect of several
socioeconomic factors on obesity rates
in OECD countries. Although previous U.S.
studies showed a positive relationship between
obesity, calories consumed, and the urbanization
process, it is also necessary to estimate
the magnitude of such relationships when
different agricultural policies, agricultural productivities,
and other sociodemographic, environmental,
and cultural factors are taken into
consideration.
In this article, we employ the latest data
on obesity and overweight-related statistics released
by the OECD (Health Data). These
records are augmented with country-level data
pertaining to a wide variety of social, economic,
and environmental variables found to
be important determinants of obesity-related
measures in past studies.