Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter to the Editor
  • Published:

GDP per capita and obesity prevalence worldwide: an ambiguity of effects modification

International Journal of Obesity volume 41, page 352 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

We are very grateful for forwarding us the letter from Prof Torsten J Selck1 and for his interest in our research. However, after reading Prof Selck’s comments, we have several remarks.

First and foremost, we should note that our paper, published in IJO in 2016,2 was explicitly focused on the association between country-level obesity rates and artificial light-at-night (ALAN) exposure. In the study, per capita income, that is, the variable, which is pivotal to Prof Selck’s remarks, was not investigated explicitly and was used as a control variable in the multivariate analysis only.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Selck TJ . Does income positively affect obesity at the macro level? Int J Obes 2016. (this issue).

  2. Rybnikova NA, Haim A, Portnov BA . Does artificial light-at-night exposure contribute to the worldwide obesity pandemic? Int J Obes 2016; 40: 815–823.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Drewnowski A, Darmon N . The economics of obesity: dietary energy density and energy cost. Am J Clin Nutr 2005; 82: 265S–273S.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Jeffery RW, French SA . Socioeconomic status and weight control practices among 20-to 45-year-old women. Am J Public Health. 1996; 86: 1005–1010.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Kark M, Rasmussen F . Growing social inequalities in the occurrence of overweight and obesity among young men in Sweden. Scand J Public Health 2005; 33: 472–477.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Miech RA, Kumanyika SK, Settler N, Link BG, Phelan JC, Chang VW . Trends in the association of poverty with overweight among US adolescents, 1971–2004. JAMA 2006; 295: 2385–2393.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Meydan C, Afek A, Derazne E, Tzur D, Twig G, Gordon B et al. Population-based trends in overweight and obesity: a comparative study of 2148342 Israeli male and female adolescents born 1950–1993. Pediatr Obes 2012; 8: 98–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, Faculty of Management, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Israel

    N A Rybnikova & B A Portnov

Authors
  1. N A Rybnikova
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. B A Portnov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to N A Rybnikova or B A Portnov.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declare no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rybnikova, N., Portnov, B. GDP per capita and obesity prevalence worldwide: an ambiguity of effects modification. Int J Obes 41, 352 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2016.215

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2016.215

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links