Socioeconomic Inequality in Overweight and Obesity in China

Abstract

This paper analyzes the socioeconomic inequality in overweight and obesity in China,using the concentration index and the achievement index. Concentration index can reflect the direction and the magnitude of the socioeconomic inequality and achievement index can take average health problem level into consideration. The decompositions of these two indices are also applied in this paper to explore the inequality resources. Children and adults are analyzed separately because of their different criteria of being obese. The results illustrate that for most Chinese demographic groups, the rich are more likely to be overweight and obese. Another finding is that the socioeconomic overweight/obesity inequalities are prevalent in China and these inequalities vary across different groups