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Memorias del Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud
On-line version ISSN 1812-9528
Abstract
BARAHONA-URBINA, Planck and BARAHONA-DROGUETT, Manuel. Economic development and inequality as factors associated with the prevalence of childhood obesity in Chile. Mem. Inst. Investig. Cienc. Salud [online]. 2019, vol.17, n.1, pp.39-46. ISSN 1812-9528. https://doi.org/10.18004/mem.iics/1812-9528/2019.017(01)39-046.
The objective of this work was to determine the factors associated with the prevalence of childhood obesity at national level in the period 2001-2009 in a sample of 553,044 children. A multiple regression model with step introduction was carried out. As an endogenous variable, the prevalence of obesity in preschool children at national level was used. As exogenous variables, different macroeconomic variables were used: the average schooling of the population (years), the Human Development Index (HDI), the GINI index, the public spending on health as a percentage of GDP and the spending on education as a percentage of GDP. The results showed that the variables associated with the prevalence of childhood obesity were the Human Development Index (HDI) and public health expenditure. The conclusions of this work are that as the Human Development Index (HDI) increases, the prevalence in childhood obesity decreases. As public health expenditure increases, the prevalence of obesity decreases. The results of the study show the importance of the increase in public health expenditure in preventive and curative services, and in family planning activities.
Keywords : obesity; Gini index; human development index; health expenditure; education expenditure..