The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Obesity

There is an urgent need to better understand the causes and consequences of obesity, and to learn what works to prevent or reduce obesity. This volume accurately and conveniently summarizes the findings and insights of obesity-related research from the full range of social sciences including anthropology, economics, government, psychology, and sociology. It is an excellent resource for researchers in these areas, both bringing them up to date on the relevant research in their own discipline and allowing them to quickly and easily understand the cutting-edge research being produced in other disciplines. The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Obesity is a critical reference for obesity researchers and is also valuable for public health officials, policymakers, nutritionists, and medical practitioners. The first section of the book explains how each social science discipline models human behavior (in particular, diet and physical activity), and summarizes the major research literatures on obesity in that discipline. The second section provides important practical information for researchers, including a guide to publicly available social science data on obesity and an overview of the challenges to causal inference in obesity research. The third part of the book synthesizes social science research on specific causes and correlates of obesity, such as food advertising, food prices, and peers. The fourth section summarizes social science research on the consequences of obesity, such as lower wages, job absenteeism, and discrimination. The fifth and final section reviews the social science literature on obesity treatment and prevention, such as food taxes, school-based interventions, and medical treatments such as anti-obesity drugs and bariatric surgery. Contributors to this volume - Marc A. Adams is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at San Diego State University and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Patricia M. Anderson is a Professor in the Department of Economics at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. M. Christopher Auld is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Canada. Susan L. Averett is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Didem Bernard is a Senior Economist at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in the US Department of Health and Human Services in Rockville, Maryland. Tamara Brown is a Research Fellow in Liverpool Reviews and Implementation Group, in the Department of Population, Community and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Liverpool in Liverpool, England. Kelly D. Brownell is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Sahara Byrne is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Paul Campos is a Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder, Colorado. John Cawley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Scott Alan Carson is a Professor of Economics at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas. Victoria Catenacci is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes and a Clinical Researcher in the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado. Frank J. Chaloupka is a Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Virginia W. Chang is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jamie F. Chriqui is a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Health Research and Policy and a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Steven Cummins is a Senior Lecturer and a National Institute for Health Research Fellow in the Department of Geography at Queen Mary, University of London in London, England. Ding Ding is a doctoral student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health at San Diego State University and University of California San Diego. Dongyi Tony Du is a Food and Drug Administration Commissioner's Fellow in Silver Spring, Maryland. Julie S. Downs is an Assistant Research Professor and the Director of the Center for Risk Perception and Communication at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Christina D. Economos is an Associate Professor in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the Associate Director of the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity Prevention (JHRC) at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. William Encinosa is a Researcher at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Rockville, Maryland and he is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute in Washington, District of Columbia. E. Whitney Evans is a doctoral student in the Nutritional Epidemiology Program at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. Diane T. Finegood is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Eric Finkelstein is an Associate Professor and the Deputy Director for the Health Services and Systems Research Program at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore, Singapore. Jason M. Fletcher is an Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut. Ellen Granberg is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. Ron Z. Goetzel is the Director of the Emory University Institute for Health and Productivity Studies in Washington, District of Columbia and Vice President of Consulting and Applied Research for Thomson Reuters in Washington, District of Columbia. Penny Gordon?Larsen is an Associate Professor of Nutrition in the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the School of Medicine, and a Fellow of the Carolina Population Center, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Paul Grootendorst is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Division of Clinical, Social and Administrative Pharmacy at the University of Toronto, Canada. James O. Hill is a Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine and the Director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado in Denver, Colorado. Christine L. Himes is the Maxwell Professor of Sociology and the Director at the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. Jeff M. Hunger is a graduate student in Experimental Psychology at the California State University in Fullerton, California. Pauline M. Ippolito is the Deputy Director of the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, District of Columbia. LaShanda Jones-Corneille is a Psychologist and Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ichiro Kawachi is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. Inas Rashad Kelly is an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Queens College of the City University of New York, in New York City, New York. Rogan Kersh is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the New York University Wagner, Graduate School of Public Service in New York City, New York. Barrett Kirwan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. Niranjana Kowlessar is a Researcher at Thomson Reuters, in Evanston, Illinois. Tanja V. E. Kral is a Research Assistant Professor of Nutrition in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Darius N. Lakdawalla is an Associate Professor in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development and the Director of Research at the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. Rivka C. Liss-Levinson is a Research Project Coordinator in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Emory University in Washington, District of Columbia. George Lowenstein is the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Economics and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Paul MacLean is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes and a Researcher in the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado in Denver, Colorado. Traci Mann is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lindsay McLaren is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Canada. Neil K. Metha is a Health and Society Scholar sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. James Morone is Professor and Chair of Political Science at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Ashley Moskovich is a graduate student in Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Aviva Must is the Morton A. Madoff Professor and Chair of Public Health and Community Medicine, as well as the Dean of the Public Health and Professional Degree Programs at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. Jeff Niederdeppe is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Lorri Ogden is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Informatics at the Colorado School of Public Health in Aurora, Colorado. Xiaofei Pei is an Economist with Thomson Reuters in Washington, District of Columbia. Tomas J. Philipson is the Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy Studies at The Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at The University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Sarit Polsky is an Endocrine Fellow in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes and a Clinical Researcher in the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado in Denver, Colorado. Barry M. Popkin is the Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Global Nutrition and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Obesity at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Richard A. Posner is a Judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School in Chicago, Illinois. Lisa M. Powell is a Research Professor in the Department of Economics and a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Rebecca M. Puhl is a Research Scientist and Director of Research and Weight Stigma Initiatives at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Christina A. Roberto is a graduate student in Clinical Psychology and Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Enid Chung Roemer is an Assistant Research Professor at the Emory University Institute for Health and Productivity Studies in Washington, District of Columbia. Barbara J. Rolls is the Helen A. Guthrie Chair and Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. Esther D. Rothblum is a Professor of Women's Studies at San Diego State University in San Diego, California. Larissa Roux is a Primary Care Sport Medicine Physician and Health Economist in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and a Consultant to the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. Larissa Roux is a Clinical Fellow in Sport Medicine, as well as a doctoral student in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Canada. Abigail C. Saguy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California in Los Angeles, California. James F. Sallis is professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of Active Living Research at San Diego State University in San Diego, California. Daniel Samoly is an Assistant Program Coordinator at the Emory University Institute for Health and Productivity Studies in Washington, District of Columbia. Sarah Sliwa is a New Balance Doctoral Fellow in the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity Prevention (JHRC) at The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. Dianna Smith is a Medical Research Council Fellow in the Department of Geography at Queen Mary, University of London in London, England. Jeffery Sobal is a Professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Rebecca Stack, MPH, is a Dietetic Intern for ARAMARK Corporation. Roland Sturm is a Senior Economist at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. Maryam Tabrizi is a Researcher at Thomson Reuters in Washington, District of Columbia. Amanda L. Thompson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and a Fellow of the Carolina Population Center, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Khoa Truong is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. Elizabeth A. Vandewater is a Senior Research Scientist in Molecular Epidemiology, Genomics, Environment and Health at RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, Texas. Michele Ver Ploeg is an Economist in the Economic Research Service at the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, District of Columbia. Jessica Waddell is a Senior Analyst with Thomson Reuters in Washington, District of Columbia. Thomas Wadden is a Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Director of the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Renee E. Walker is a Kellogg Health Scholar and Yerby Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. Brian Wansink is the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and the Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Ellen A. Wartella is a Professor of Communication Studies and of Psychology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Holly Wyatt is an Associate Professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes and a Clinical Researcher in the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado in Denver, Colorado. Hae Kyung Yang is an Assistant Professor in the College of Commerce and Economics at Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea. Yuhui Zheng is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.