The Influence of Community Environmental Factors on Adolescent Obesity

Abstract

The obesity rate of teenagers in Korea is constantly increasing. Obesity in adolescence not only adversely affects the health of teenagers, but also leads to obesity in adulthood. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of community environmental factors on obesity of teenagers who spend a long time outside due to their studies. The densities of convenience stores, fast food restaurants and public sports facilities were considered as major factors of the community environment. The cohort of the first grade of middle school in Korea Children & Youth Panel Survey 2010 was used. The Individual fixed effect(FE) model and that with instrumental variables(IV-FE) were used in order to control the effects of unobservable time-invariant variables that affect obesity. The FE results showed that when the density of fast food stores increased, the probability of obesity among adolescents significantly increased. The density of public sports facilities was found to significantly reduce the obesity probability of male students. In the analysis using instrumental variables(IV-FE), it was found that the increase in the density of convenience stores significantly decreased the probability of obesity among male students, and the density of fast food stores increased the probability of obesity among male and female students. It was confirmed that convenience stores and fast foods have different effects on the obesity of adolescents.