Are US obesity rates converging?

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study is to determine whether US obesity rates are converging. Using US overweight rates and obesity rates data in 50 states and District of Columbia during 1996–2013, the results of this article show that -convergence occurred for obesity rates, overweight rates, and overweight and obesity rates during time period 1996–2001. The existence of -convergence also varies in different regions. It was also found that -convergence occurred in the full period 1996–2013 and several sub-periods. These findings imply that more policies and regulations should be placed on specific regions, for example, the Northeast. Meanwhile, relevant policies could be ineffective in some sub-periods without the occurrence of -convergence.

KEYWORDS:

• Obesity
• overweight
• β-convergence
• σ-convergence

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• I00
• I18
• J11

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Coefficient of variation is defined as the ratio of the SD to the mean.

² https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/maps/pdfs/reference/us_regdiv.pdf. Alaska and Hawaii belongs to division of the West.

³ Data are missing for some states before 1994 based on Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System. This is the longest full series of obesity rate one can get.