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The Economics of Health and Vitamin Consumption
Author(s) -
Schroeter Christiane,
Anders Sven,
Carlson Andrea
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
applied economic perspectives and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.4
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 2040-5804
pISSN - 2040-5790
DOI - 10.1093/aepp/pps040
Subject(s) - endogeneity , national health and nutrition examination survey , instrumental variable , environmental health , consumption (sociology) , obesity , demographics , public health , quality (philosophy) , supplemental nutrition assistance program , public economics , economics , gerontology , medicine , demography , econometrics , geography , sociology , population , agriculture , food insecurity , social science , food security , philosophy , nursing , archaeology , epistemology
Abstract We estimate the impact of vitamin supplement intake, lifestyle, health indicators, food culture, and demographics on diet quality outcomes as measured by the Healthy Eating Index–2005 (HEI). Our data consists of U.S. adults who participated in the 2003–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Alternative instrumental variable estimators explicitly address issues of endogeneity and complex sample design. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that diet quality is strongly interrelated with food culture. We suggest that vitamin consumption serves as another marker for healthy eating. This finding emphasizes the need to employ economic modeling when developing public policy to reduce obesity.