Childhood Obesity and Cognitive Achievement.
Health Econ
; 24(9): 1082-100, 2015 Sep.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-26123250
ABSTRACT
Obese children tend to perform worse academically than normal-weight children. If poor cognitive achievement is truly a consequence of childhood obesity, this relationship has significant policy implications. Therefore, an important question is to what extent can this correlation be explained by other factors that jointly determine obesity and cognitive achievement in childhood? To answer this question, we exploit a rich longitudinal dataset of Australian children, which is linked to national assessments in math and literacy. Using a range of estimators, we find that obesity and body mass index are negatively related to cognitive achievement for boys but not girls. This effect cannot be explained by sociodemographic factors, past cognitive achievement or unobserved time-invariant characteristics and is robust to different measures of adiposity. Given the enormous importance of early human capital development for future well-being and prosperity, this negative effect for boys is concerning and warrants further investigation.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Escolaridad
/
Obesidad Infantil
Tipo de estudio:
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
País/Región como asunto:
Oceania
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Health Econ
Asunto de la revista:
SERVICOS DE SAUDE
Año:
2015
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Australia