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Estimating the Peer Effect on Youth Overweight and Inactivity Using an Intervention Study
Author(s) -
Quinto Romani Annette
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/josh.12198
Subject(s) - overweight , intervention (counseling) , spillover effect , peer effects , obesity , body mass index , peer group , environmental health , medicine , gerontology , psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , social psychology , pathology , microeconomics , economics
BACKGROUND Understanding peer effect is potentially important for finding ways to combat the obesity epidemic. Nevertheless, it is not clear whether a peer effect exists because of the composition of the peer group, because the group members have similar, unobserved individual characteristics, or because of an endogenous effect. METHODS This issue is addressed here by using a unique longitudinal data set of 573 schoolchildren attending state schools in the Municipality of Aalborg, Denmark, during 2008‐2010. To identify the spillover effect of a targeted intervention on peers, we use a difference‐in‐differences approach. RESULTS A targeted health intervention reduced body mass index (BMI) among overweight, inactive individuals and, more interestingly, that BMI among the nontreated peers was reduced by 1.04%. CONCLUSIONS The analysis suggests that individually targeted health intervention has a health benefit beyond the treated individual, which needs to be included when evaluating targeted policies aiming to combat childhood overweight and inactivity.