title: Minimum Wage and Overweight and Obesity in Adult Women: A Multilevel Analysis of Low and Middle Income Countries.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the relationship between minimum wage and overweight and obesity across countries at different levels of development.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional analysis of 27 countries with data on the legislated minimum wage level linked to socio-demographic and anthropometry data of non-pregnant 190,892 adult women (24-49 y) from the Demographic and Health Survey. We used multilevel logistic regression models to condition on country- and individual-level potential confounders, and post-estimation of average marginal effects to calculate the adjusted prevalence difference.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found the association between minimum wage and overweight/obesity was independent of individual-level SES and confounders, and showed a reversed pattern by country development stage. The adjusted overweight/obesity prevalence difference in low-income countries was an average increase of about 0.1 percentage points (PD 0.075 [0.065, 0.084]), and an average decrease of 0.01 percentage points in middle-income countries (PD -0.014 [-0.019, -0.009]). The adjusted obesity prevalence difference in low-income countries was an average increase of 0.03 percentage points (PD 0.032 [0.021, 0.042]) and an average decrease of 0.03 percentage points in middle-income countries (PD -0.032 [-0.036, -0.027]).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is among the first studies to examine the potential impact of improved wages on an important precursor of non-communicable diseases globally. Among countries with a modest level of economic development, higher minimum wage was associated with lower levels of obesity.
authors.affiliation: WORLD Policy Analysis Center, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Annalijn I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Conklin
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ninez A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Ponce
authors.affiliation: Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research & Policy, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Frank
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health and Social Policy and Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Arijit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nandi
authors.affiliation: WORLD Policy Analysis Center, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jody
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heymann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D015995:Prevalence; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors