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Socio-Economic Review Advance Access published online on July 27, 2006
Socio-Economic Review, doi:10.1093/ser/mwl018
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press and the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Article

Revisiting the ‘Fat and Jolly’ hypothesis: socio-environmental determinants of obesity and depression in Spain

Joan Costa-Font 1 * and Joan Gil 2

1 Departament de Teoria Econòmica & CAEPS, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona; LSE Health and Social Care, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2A 2AE, London
2 Departament de Teoria Econòmica & CAEPS, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Joan Costa-Font, E-mail: j.costa-font{at}lse.ac.uk


  Abstract

The hypothesis of the reciprocal determination of obesity and depression (OD) epidemics, contrasts with the anecdotal wisdom of a person being ‘jolly and fat’, and calls for a better understanding of any underpinning socio-environmental determinants. This paper deals with the influence of socio-environmental factors (mainly social and personal interactions) in explaining the empirical association between OD. We draw upon a unique representative health survey from Spain; a country with a growing prevalence of both OD. We use instrumental variable methods to deal with reverse OD association and the existence of omitted confounding variables as common predictors. We find that in explaining the OD association, socio-environmental factors and especially family interactions appear to play a key intermediate effect rather than socio-economic position. Finally, we find evidence of the significant gender differences and a particular effect of health-related lifestyles behind the OD association.

Keywords: obesity; depression; socio-environmental determinants; social interactions; family interactions; inequalities in health; health lifestyles; instrumental variables; probit models.
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