Obesity
1
Does obesity lead to poor school performance? Estimates from propensity score matching
Hongyun Han Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison March 26, 2012 ABSTRACT High body weight is negatively associated with test scores among elementary and middle school students. Are these negative outcomes due to preexisting differences, or are they a casual effect of childhood obesity? To better understand the causal mechanisms underlying this pattern, I use a propensity score matching approach to control for biases from observable preexisting differences, and conduct sensitivity analysis to assess the impact of biases from unobserved variables. Using data from the Early Childhood
Longitudinal Study, the matching models reveal that obese eighth graders, on average, score 0.17 standard deviations lower in reading and 0.16 standard deviations lower in math, a reduction roughly equivalent to one sixth of the racial achievement gap. Obesity penalties are larger for girls than for boys in both subjects. Differences between obese and normal-weight children decline slightly after adjusting for missing values. Findings from sensitivity analyses indicate that unmeasured variables would need to increase the odds of becoming obese by at least 20 percent to change the conclusion. Key words: obesity, academic achievement, propensity score matching
2
Does obesity lead to poor school performance? Estimates from propensity score matching
Childhood obesity has become a public health crisis in the United States. The rates of obesity among children and adolescents have tripled over the past four decades(Wang and Beydoun 2007). Roughly one in five children and adolescence ages 2 through 19 was obese (Ogden et al. 2010). Treatments for obesity-related conditions in the United States cost roughly $150 billion per year (Cawley 2010). Past research has revealed substantial negative impacts of obesity on public health and the health care system (Finkelstein, Ruhm and
Does obesity lead to poor school performance? Estimates from propensity score matching
Hongyun Han Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison March 26, 2012 ABSTRACT High body weight is negatively associated with test scores among elementary and middle school students. Are these negative outcomes due to preexisting differences, or are they a casual effect of childhood obesity? To better understand the causal mechanisms underlying this pattern, I use a propensity score matching approach to control for biases from observable preexisting differences, and conduct sensitivity analysis to assess the impact of biases from unobserved variables. Using data from the Early Childhood
Longitudinal Study, the matching models reveal that obese eighth graders, on average, score 0.17 standard deviations lower in reading and 0.16 standard deviations lower in math, a reduction roughly equivalent to one sixth of the racial achievement gap. Obesity penalties are larger for girls than for boys in both subjects. Differences between obese and normal-weight children decline slightly after adjusting for missing values. Findings from sensitivity analyses indicate that unmeasured variables would need to increase the odds of becoming obese by at least 20 percent to change the conclusion. Key words: obesity, academic achievement, propensity score matching
2
Does obesity lead to poor school performance? Estimates from propensity score matching
Childhood obesity has become a public health crisis in the United States. The rates of obesity among children and adolescents have tripled over the past four decades(Wang and Beydoun 2007). Roughly one in five children and adolescence ages 2 through 19 was obese (Ogden et al. 2010). Treatments for obesity-related conditions in the United States cost roughly $150 billion per year (Cawley 2010). Past research has revealed substantial negative impacts of obesity on public health and the health care system (Finkelstein, Ruhm and