TY - JOUR
T1 - Obesogenic environmental influences on young adults
T2 - Evidence from college dormitory assignments
AU - Kapinos, Kandice A.
AU - Yakusheva, Olga
AU - Eisenberg, Daniel
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to Jody Sindelar, Kevin Stange, Rusty, Tchernis, three anonymous reviewers, session participants at the Health Economics Interest Group meeting at Academy Health, the Midwest Health Economics Conference, the Southern Economic Association meetings, and seminar participants at Abt Associates Inc., the University of Maryland, Washington University, and the Department of Veterans Affairs for their comments. This research was undertaken while Kapinos was a postdoctoral fellow the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Minnesota. Yakusheva thanks Marquette University College of Business for funding support from faculty research grants, and AHRQ for funding support from the T-32 Postdoctoral Training Grant in Health Services Research (5 T32 HS 17589-4). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States government. This project uses data from a research project funded by the W.T. Grant Foundation.
PY - 2014/1
Y1 - 2014/1
N2 - This study utilizes a natural experiment - conditionally random dormitory assignments of first-year US college students - to investigate the influence of obesogenic environmental factors in explaining changes in weight and exercise behavior during the 2009-2010 academic year. The design addresses potential selection biases resulting from the likelihood that individuals sort into built environments that match their preferences for exercise and healthy eating. We find some evidence that the food environment, specifically access to campus dining, significantly affected the weight of female students in our study. Females assigned to dormitories where the nearest campus dining hall was closed on the weekends gained about 1 lb less over the course of the year than females assigned to dormitories near dining halls that were open 7 days a week. We also find some evidence that female who lived in close proximity to a grocery store gained less weight over the course of the year. Finally, females who lived closer to campus gym reported more frequent exercise over the course of the year. We do not find significant effects of the built environment on weight changes of males in our sample, but we are cautious to draw strong conclusions from this because the male weight change in our sample was quite small.
AB - This study utilizes a natural experiment - conditionally random dormitory assignments of first-year US college students - to investigate the influence of obesogenic environmental factors in explaining changes in weight and exercise behavior during the 2009-2010 academic year. The design addresses potential selection biases resulting from the likelihood that individuals sort into built environments that match their preferences for exercise and healthy eating. We find some evidence that the food environment, specifically access to campus dining, significantly affected the weight of female students in our study. Females assigned to dormitories where the nearest campus dining hall was closed on the weekends gained about 1 lb less over the course of the year than females assigned to dormitories near dining halls that were open 7 days a week. We also find some evidence that female who lived in close proximity to a grocery store gained less weight over the course of the year. Finally, females who lived closer to campus gym reported more frequent exercise over the course of the year. We do not find significant effects of the built environment on weight changes of males in our sample, but we are cautious to draw strong conclusions from this because the male weight change in our sample was quite small.
KW - Built environment effects
KW - Obesity
KW - Weight gain
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84893668517&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ehb.2013.05.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ehb.2013.05.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 23764142
AN - SCOPUS:84893668517
SN - 1570-677X
VL - 12
SP - 98
EP - 109
JO - Economics and Human Biology
JF - Economics and Human Biology
IS - 1
ER -