Several other studies on adults have focused
on just prices or taxes without controlling outlet
availability. One such study, which draws
on cross-sectional data from the 1994–96 Continuing
Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals,
does not find evidence of a statistically significant
association between fast-food prices and
adult weight, although higher fast-food prices
are found to reduce fast-food consumption and
improve diet quality among adults. However,
the same study reports higher fruit and vegetable
prices to be inversely associated with
adult BMI (Beydoun, Powell, andWang 2008).
Miljkovic, Nganje, and de Chastenet (2008)
find that increasing the current price of sugarbased
foods by1%decreases the probability of
a normal-weight adult to become overweight
or obese by 2.32% and 3.07%, respectively.
Examining state-level taxes and using aggregated
state-level outcome data (rather than
individual-level data) from the BRFSS, Kim
and Kawachi (2006) find no statistically significant
differences in obesity prevalence between
states without soft drink or snack food taxes
and states with those taxes or states with at least
a 5% tax on such food items. They find weak
statistical evidence that states that repealed a
soft drink or snack food tax are thirteen times
more likely to have a high relative increase in
obesity prevalence compared with states that
have such a tax.