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Data

Year of publication

2019

Kind

Quantitative

Design

Longitudinal

Classification

NOVA

Country studied

United Kingdom, Portugal, Ireland, Germany and France

Data

Secondary

Data collected

Database

Study setting

Online

Age group of participants

Adults/20-64

Participant sex

Mixed

Target population

General

Sample size

n= 2 916 880 (participants)

The price of ultra-processed foods and beverages and adult body weight: Evidence from U.S. veterans

goal

Examine the association between the price of ultra-processed foods and beverages and adult body mass index (BMI).

Results

The results showed that a one-dollar increase in the price of ultra-processed foods and beverages was associated with 0.08 lower BMI units for men (p ≤ 0.05) (price elasticity of BMI of -0.01)and 0.14 lower BMI units for women (p ≤ 0.10) (price elasticity of BMI of -0.02). Higher prices of ultra-processed foods and beverages were associated with lower BMI among low-SES men (price elasticity of BMI of - 0.02) and low-SES women (price elasticity of BMI of - 0.07) but no statistically significant associations were found for middle- or high-SES men or women. Robustness checks based on theestimation of an individual-level fixed effects model found a consistent but smaller association betweenthe price of ultra-processed foods and beverages and BMI among women (price elasticity of BMI of - 0.01)with a relatively larger association for low-SES women (price elasticity of BMI of - 0.04) but revealed noassociation for men highlighting the importance of accounting for individual-level unobserved heterogeneity

Authors

Powell LM, Jones K, Duran AC, Tarlov E, Zenk SN.

Log

Economics & Human Biology

DOIs

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