Dataset Information

Relationships between social spending and childhood obesity in OECD countries: an ecological study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The burden of childhood obesity is clustered among children in low-socioeconomic groups. Social spending on children-public welfare expenditure on families and education-may curb childhood obesity by reducing socioeconomic disadvantages. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between social spending on children and childhood obesity across the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

Design

Ecological study.

Setting

Data on social spending on children were obtained from the OECD Social Expenditure Database and the OECD educational finance indicators dataset during 2000-2015. Data on childhood obesity were obtained from the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration database.

Participants

Aggregated statistics on obesity among children aged 5-19 years, estimated for OECD 35 countries based on the measured height and weight on 31.5?million children.

Outcome measures

Country-level prevalence of obesity among children aged 5-19 years.

Results

In cross-sectional analyses in 2015, social spending on children was inversely associated with the prevalence of childhood obesity after adjusting for potential confounders (the gross domestic product per capita, unemployment rate, poverty rate, percentage of children aged <20 years and prevalence of childhood obesity in 2000). In addition, when we focused on changes from 2000 to 2015, an average annual increase of US$100 in social spending per child was associated with a decrease in childhood obesity by 0.6?percentage points for girls (p=0.007) and 0.7?percentage points for boys (p=0.04) between 2000 and 2015, after adjusting for the potential confounders. The dimensions of social spending that contributed to these associations between the changes in social spending on children and childhood obesity were early childhood education and care (ECEC) and school education for girls and ECEC for boys.

Conclusion

Countries that increase social spending on children tend to experience smaller increases in childhood obesity.

SUBMITTER: Miyawaki A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7907862 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Relationships between social spending and childhood obesity in OECD countries: an ecological study.

Miyawaki Atsushi A Evans Charlotte Elizabeth Louise CEL Lucas Patricia Jane PJ Kobayashi Yasuki Y

BMJ open 20210223 2

<h4>Objectives</h4>The burden of childhood obesity is clustered among children in low-socioeconomic groups. Social spending on children-public welfare expenditure on families and education-may curb childhood obesity by reducing socioeconomic disadvantages. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between social spending on children and childhood obesity across the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.<h4>Design</h4>Ecological study.<h4>Setting ...[more]

PMID: 33622950

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Dataset Information

Relationships between social spending and childhood obesity in OECD countries: an ecological study.

Objectives

Design

Setting

Participants

Outcome measures

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Relationships between social spending and childhood obesity in OECD countries: an ecological study.

Similar Datasets

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