Summary
Authors study the relationship between minimum wage and overweight and obesity across countries at different levels of development. Study authors used a cross-sectional analysis of 27 countries with data on the legislated minimum wage level linked to socio-demographic and anthropometry data of non-pregnant 190,892 adult women ages 24-49 from the Demographic and Health Survey. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to condition on country- and individual-level potential confounders, and post-estimation of average marginal effects to calculate the adjusted prevalence difference.
Authors found the association between minimum wage and overweight/obesity was independent of individual-level SES and confounders, and showed a reversed pattern by country development stage. The adjusted overweight/obesity prevalence difference in low-income countries was an average increase of about 0.1 percentage points, and an average decrease of 0.01 percentage points in middle-income countries. The adjusted obesity prevalence difference in low-income countries was an average increase of 0.03 percentage points and an average decrease of 0.03 percentage points in middle-income countries.
This is among the first studies to examine the potential impact of improved wages on an important precursor of non-communicable diseases globally. Among countries with a modest level of economic development, higher minimum wage was associated with lower levels of obesity.
