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Social Class and Obesity: An Association between BMI and Occupational Prestige
Author(s) -
Buder Iris
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
world medical and health policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.326
H-Index - 11
ISSN - 1948-4682
DOI - 10.1002/wmh3.336
Subject(s) - occupational prestige , ranking (information retrieval) , prestige , association (psychology) , body mass index , causality (physics) , obesity , psychology , ordinary least squares , medicine , social psychology , demography , environmental health , sociology , econometrics , mathematics , socioeconomic status , computer science , population , linguistics , philosophy , machine learning , psychotherapist , physics , pathology , quantum mechanics
It has been well established that physical appearance plays a role in the hiring decision, especially for women. However, the association between occupational prestige and image has not been well documented. As the use of regression analysis does not imply causality, this study focuses on the association between obesity and occupational prestige. Utilizing data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), this study seeks to extend the literature by analyzing the relationship between occupational prestige and the observed differences in ranking by body mass index (BMI). Adjusting for sociodemographic factors, this study concludes that an inverse relationship between BMI and occupational ranking is observed among women, while a positive association exists among men. The use of ordinary least squares modeling does not permit the exclusion that these associations are due to obesity alone, as there could be other unobserved characteristics influencing this relationship. However, the associations found can be a critical component in the attainment of occupational prestige and show that gender differences are present.