Job Strenuousness and Obesity: The Case of a Developing Country

© 2014, © 2014 Taylor & Francis.This paper analyses the Indonesian Family Life Survey to show that job strenuousness is negatively related to obesity, which is largely consistent with the literature. However, this paper does not interpret the relationship as causal. Instead, efforts are made to...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sohn, Kitae
Format: Journal Article
Published: Routledge 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/51766
Description
Summary:© 2014, © 2014 Taylor & Francis.This paper analyses the Indonesian Family Life Survey to show that job strenuousness is negatively related to obesity, which is largely consistent with the literature. However, this paper does not interpret the relationship as causal. Instead, efforts are made to demonstrate that the relationship is attributable to sample selection: workers with low socioeconomic status are lightweight and selected for strenuous jobs. This paper warns against reflexive applications of the conclusions derived from the developed world to the developing world. Our results imply that sedentariness at work probably plays a small role in the prevalence of obesity in the region.