Factores asociados a la obesidad infantil en chile

Abstract

The objective of this work is to determine the factors associated with the prevalence of childhood obesity at thenational level. As an endogenous variable, the prevalence of obesity has been used in the period 2001-2009. Thetotal sample of children evaluated in said period was 553,044. As exogenous variables, different macroeconomicvariables have been used, that is; the average schooling of the population, the Human Development Index (HDI),the GINI index, public spending on health as a percentage of GDP and spending on education as a percentage ofGDP. According to the nature of the data, it has been considered convenient to carry out a multiple regressionmodel with introduction by steps to determine the factors associated with obesity. The results of the econometricmodel showed that the statistically significant variables associated with the prevalence of childhood obesity are theHuman Development Index (HDI) and public health expenditure. That is, ceteris paribus, as the HumanDevelopment Index (HDI) increases, the prevalence in childhood obesity decreases. As public spending on healthincreases on the part of the State, the prevalence of obesity decreases.