Just finished a new paper in what’s become an interesting – and fun – new area for me. Our research examines the factors that are associated with smoking and obesity – two significant health problems and contributors to leading causes of death.
There’s been a lot of research on smoking and obesity among individuals and some which looks at geographic patterns. Still, what we find is interesting. There is considerable variation in smoking and obesity across states. And smoking and obesity are both closely associated with post-industrial socioeconomis structures, that is high levels of knowledge; professional, creative work; and high levels of college-educated adults. The results holds even when we control for the level of economic output.
What this all seems to mean is that places that have transitioned to postindustrialism go beyond economics and innovation. In addition to generating better-paying jobs and having higher levels of income and innovation, these sorts of places appear to have better health outcomes as well, and they do so in ways that go beyond the effects of just higher levels of economic output. The effects of these structures work in addition to the effects of Gross State Product per capita. The full paper is here.
March 4th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
As was pointed out in the Rise of the Creative Class, creative jobs are different than other types of jobs. Dan Pink pointed out on the TED Talks that what really motivates people at work are Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. Creative Class type jobs provide ample opportunities for all of those things, whereas people working in non-creative positions generally have much less autonomy, much less scope for mastery, and I would suspect feel that their jobs don’t fulfill an important function, or at the very least bring so little in the way of social status that it is difficult to see them as important. All of these things lead to a more stressful working environment, and stress is very bad for one’s health. I also wouldn’t be surprised if people who felt like they had less autonomy at work were less likely to feel like they have control in other areas of their lives.
March 5th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Somewhere I’ve read about a correlation between education levels and activity levels (amount of exercise one gets) as well as smoking propensity, so it makes sense that places with more “post industrial” economic activity, which often requires more education, have lower levels of obesity and smoking too.
It also may be that after sitting at a desk for much of the day, there is an inclination to want to exercise. Working on an assembly line is probably more inherently exhausting, making and the couch and TV remote more appealing after work.
March 10th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Back in the late 20’s Lucky Strike promoted smoking to women as a weight loss tool “Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet”. Women were a much smaller percentage of smokers in those days. (Google the motto to see some examples.)
Nicotine is indeed an appitite surpressant and I read somewhere that increasing American obesity is somewhat related to lower smoking levels. Of course, the class-related health habits of smoking, unhealthy eating and overeating (Supersize that)overpowers the nicotine and we see a lot of fat smokers.
March 11th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Knowing something doesn’t mean you use that knowledge. I read the paper and the causality link is missing. High correlations are just that, correlations. Ice cream consumption and drowning are highly correlated for example.
There is a body of work looking at how knowledge impacts behavior – see Mel Hovell et al.’s work at C-BEACH, in particular, the Behavioral Ecological Model.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
I didn’t read the paper but i would have to assume fat people that smoke is just a bad combo. They get so overweight then dont exercise. Me being a smoker i know i don’t exercise as much as i should due to being out of breath etc. At least i have quit before and know i can do it again. I don’t know what I’d do if i had to quit three things at ones… smoking, over eating, and not exercising.
December 5th, 2011 at 12:02 pm
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