Applying the Multinomial Logit Model on Analyzing the Relationship between BMI and Physical Activity in Adolescents

• Main Authors: Chia-Chi,Chang, 張家齊
• Other Authors: Chia-Yu Yeh
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/g76793

碩士 === 國立暨南國際大學 === 經濟學系 === 101 === World Health Organization pointed out that both developing and developed countries have the presence of rapidly increasing obesity growth rate in recent years. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effectiveness of physical activity to develop a healthy BMI status. By surveying junior high school students in Taichung metropolitan area, 1,165 observations were collected, including 597 male samples and 567 female samples. The theory of Social Dynamics of Obesity developed by Burke and Heiland (2007) is adopted for the analytical basis. According to the BMI data, the respondents are divided into the categories of underweight, normal, overweight, and obesity. Since the dependent variables are multicategorical, the study applies Multinomial Logit Regression analysis because of the efficiency and consistency on estimation. With all sample data, the empirical results show that parental BMI and gender significantly affect adolescent weight status, and increasing physical activity level can significantly reduce the probability of being obese. For boys, the empirical results indicate that parental BMI significantly affect the possibility of being underweight. More importantly, increasing physical activity level not only reduces the possibility of being obese but also reduces the possibility of being underweight. For girls, the empirical results indicate that the possibiltiy of being obese increases when their mothers work. However, if girls have regular exercise habits, they can significantly reduce the chance of obesity. In sum, this study suggests that the government can promote the importance of exercise and regular exercise to the adolescents, as well as to support the parents, especially working parents on inspecting the adolescents with health lifestly for helping the adolescents to enhance health.