Do environmental factors drive obesity? Evidence from international graduate students

Abstract

International students offer a unique window into the role environmental factors play in driving obesity. Naïve estimates of the relationship between environmental factors and obesity are often plagued by reverse causation, sample selection, and omitted variable bias. In this study, we survey international students at 40 public universities across the United States. We use this unique data to link the weight gain of international students to the prevalence of obesity where they live. We argue that our estimates are less likely to be biased as international students have limited control over the environment to which they are exposed upon arrival in the United States. We find that students living in areas with a higher prevalence of obesity show a biologically important and statistically significantly greater increase in weight as compared to those living in areas with a lower prevalence of obesity. Results provide cautious evidence that environmental characteristics of a region can affect the weight gain of individuals.

Association between environmental factors and BMI: evidence from recent immigrants from developing countries

“…Similarly, Kling et al find that moving from a higher to a lower poverty neighborhood reduces the probability of being obese [49]. Katare and Beatty find that limited access to healthy food has a significant effect on weight gain in international students [36]. These studies provide evidence that environmental factors influence individual health outcomes.…”

“…According to McDonald and Kennedy [25], association of immigrant with their ethnic social network in the host country accelerates their assimilation process with host country’s culture and lifestyle, in turn influencing immigrants’ health. Katare and Beatty [36] find that international students who chose to attend a university in a higher obesity region gain significantly more weight as compared to those who chose a university in a lower obesity region. They show that international students’ choice of university is independent of the local environmental factors, thus establishing an almost causal relationship between the LOR and weight gain in students.…”

Anthropometry Measures and Prevalence of Obesity among Undergraduates of Public University Libya

“…In Libya, the rates of overweight and obesity have been increasing, which makes most of its population vulnerable to the preventable chronic diseases already mentioned (24) . There is evidence in homes of the coexistence of excess and deficit of weight, called "double nutritional load," and deficiencies of various nutrients despite macronutrients and energy above the population recommendations.…”

Obesity and food away from home: What drives the socioeconomic gradient in excess body weight?

“…Even though some cases of obesity and overweight are linked to genetic and metabolic factors, the obesity epidemic itself is related to behavioral determinants and the social and physical environment (Sturm and An 2014;Cannuscio et al 2014;Katare and Beatty 2018). There is growing agreement among experts that the food environment is a key driver of rising trends in excess body weight (Steeves et al 2014).…”