TY - JOUR AU - Monheit,Alan C. AU - Vistnes,Jessica P. AU - Rogowski,Jeannette A. TI - Overweight in Adolescents: Implications for Health Expenditures JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 13488 PY - 2007 Y2 - October 2007 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13488 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13488.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Alan C. Monheit School of Public Health University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) 683 Hoes Lane West Piscataway, NJ 08854-5635 Tel: 732/235-2865 Fax: 732/235-4004 E-Mail: monheiac@umdnj.edu Jessica P. Vistnes Center for Cost and Financing Studies Agency for Health Care and Research 540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850 E-Mail: jvistnes@ahrq.gov Jeannette A. Rogowski UMDNJ - School of Public Health Department of Health Systems and Policy 683 Hoes Lane West, Room 332 Piscataway, NJ 08854 Tel: 732/235-9759 Fax: 732/235-4004 E-Mail: rogowsje@umdnj.edu AB - We consider two compelling research questions raised by the increased prevalence of overweight among adolescents. First, what factors explain variation in adolescent bodyweight and the likelihood of being overweight? Next, do overweight adolescents incur greater health care expenditures compared to those of normal weight? We address the former question by examining the contribution of individual characteristics, economic factors, parental and family attributes, and neighborhood characteristics to variation in these bodyweight outcomes. For the second question, we estimate a two-part, generalized linear model of health spending. Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, our econometric analyses indicate that adolescent bodyweight and the likelihood of being overweight are strongly associated with parental bodyweight, parental education, parental smoking behavior, and neighborhood attributes such as the availability of fresh food markets and convenience/snack food outlets, and neighborhood safety and material deprivation. Our expenditure model indicates that overweight females have annual expenditures that exceed those of normal weight by nearly $800 with part of the disparity explained by differences in mental health expenditures. We use both sets of empirical results to draw implications for policies to address adolescent overweight. ER -