Weight status at age 18 influences marriage prospects. A population-based study of Swedish men

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In a longitudinal population-based study of the relationship between body mass index (BMI) in early adulthood and marital status at 40 years of age, obese men were half as likely to be married compared with men of normal weight. Significant associations between obesity and marital status among men in a longitudinal setting are novel findings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study cohort comprised Swedish men born from 1951 to 1961. Height and weight at age 18 was gathered from the Military Service Conscription Register and information on marital status at 40 years of age was obtained from population registers by record-linkage using the unique personal identification number. The odds ratio (OR) for being married was calculated by polytomous logistic regression analysis adjusting for birth year, intellectual performance, education, country of birth, residential area, socioeconomic position in childhood and adulthood, parental education and muscle strength.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our study included 486 599 Swedish men. Young men who were obese (BMI≥30.0) at 18 years of age had an OR of 0.49 (95% CI: 0.46–0.52) for being married at 40 years of age compared to normal weight men (BMI: 18.5–24.9). Underweight men (BMI≤18.5) had an OR of 0.84 (0.82–0.86) and overweight men (BMI: 25.0–29.9) had an OR of 0.83 (0.80–0.85) for being married at 40 years of age.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Underweight, overweight and obese men were less likely to be married than their normal weight counterparts. Obese men had the lowest likelihood of being married. Stigmatization and discrimination may partly explain these findings, but further research is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn.</p

Interindustry part-time and full-time wage differentials: regional and national analysis

This paper provides more evidence that the wage differential is far smaller than is suggested by simple comparison of gross wages of full-time and part-time workers. It is noted that to obtain a more reasonable measure of the full-time and part-time wage differential, it is necessary to adjust for differences in workers' characteristics, labour market conditions and sample selection. It is found that, in general, full-time and part-time workers exhibit different personal characteristics. In particular, full-time workers possess more human capital and experience than part-timers. Also, labour market conditions such as unions and pension plans favour full-timers. These differences may partly account for the wage disparity between full-time and part-time workers. It was noted that the nonrandomness of the workers into full-time and part-time jobs influences the wage determination of both full-time and part-time workers. The results indicate that the adjustment of the wage equations to reflect the above mentioned differences reduces the national wage differential between full-time and part-time workers by 10%. The reduction is even larger across regions and industries. Another finding was that the wage determination processes between full-time and part-time workers do differ.

The Impact of State Abortion Policies on Teen Pregnancy Rates

Restrictive abortion policies, Teen pregnancy rates,