Neighbourhood Socio-Economic Circumstances, Place of Residence and Obesity amongst Australian Adults: A Longitudinal Regression Analysis Using 14 Annual Waves of the HILDA Cohort
Survey
HILDA
Author(s)
Keramat, Syed Afroz
Economics Discipline, Social Science School, Khulna University, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh; School of Business, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia; Centre for Health Research, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia
Sathi, Nusrat Jahan
Statistics Discipline, Science, Engineering & Technology School, Khulna University, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh
Haque, Rezwanul
Department of Economics, American International University-Bangladesh, Dhaka 1229, Bangladesh
Ahammed, Benojir
Statistics Discipline, Science, Engineering & Technology School, Khulna University, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh
Chowdhury, Rupok
Economics Discipline, Social Science School, Khulna University, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh
rubayyat.hashmi@usq.edu.au
School of Business, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia; Centre for Health Research, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia
Ahmad, Kabir
kabir.ahmad@usq.edu.au
School of Business, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia; Centre for Health Research, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia
Date Issued
2021
Pages
178-188
Keywords
Obesity
neighbourhood socioeconomic circumstances
place of residence
random-effects logistic regression
Australia
Abstract
The prevalence of overweight and obesity is rising dramatically worldwide, including in Australia. Therefore, the necessity of identifying the risk factors of overweight and obesity is pivotal. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of neighbourhood socio-economic circumstances and place of residence on obesity amongst Australian adults. This study has used nationally representative panel data on 183,183 person-year observations from 26,032 unique Australian adults from the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA). Random-effects logistic regression technique was employed to examine the relationships. The prevalence of overweight and obesity has been found at approximately 34% and 24%, respectively. The most striking result to emerge from the analyses is that adults living in the most socio-economic disadvantaged area were 2.04 times (AOR: 2.04, 95% CI: 1.57–2.65) and adults from regional cities of Australia were 1.71 times (AOR: 1.71, 95% CI: 1.34–2.19) more prone to be obese compared to their healthy counterparts. The prevalence of overweight and obesity is very high among Australian adults, especially those living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods and the regional cities. Unhealthy levels of BMI have costly impacts on the individual, the economy, and the health care system. Therefore, this study emphasises effective weight control strategies that can potentially tackle the obesity epidemic in Australia.
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External resource (Link)
Type
Journal Articles
