ArticleBulletin of the World Health Organization2014
The influence of market deregulation on fast food consumption and body mass index: a cross-national time series analysis.
Article in Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Ultra-Processed Food Availability and Noncommunicable Diseases: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Progress Evaluation for Transnational Restaurant Chains to Reformulate Products and Standardize Portions to Meet Healthy Dietary Guidelines and Reduce Obesity and Non-Communicable Disease Risks, 2000-2018: A Scoping and Systematic Review to Inform Policy.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Pooled it
- Quantifying the availability of hyper-palatable foods in US food stores and household purchasing behaviour.Public health nutrition · 2026Article
- Bacterial load assessment and multi-drug resistant Bacteria isolation from Fuchka in Mymensingh City, Bangladesh.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Article
- Quality and Storage Characteristics of Hanwoo Pemmican by Replacing Canola Oil.Food science of animal resources · 2025Article
- The battle over "food addiction".Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Microbiological safety assessment of ready-to-eat cooked foods in the Addis Ababa School Feeding Program, Ethiopia.Heliyon · 2024Article
- US trade policy and public health: heterogeneous effects from the North American Free Trade Agreement.Public health nutrition · 2024Article
- Risk and sex-specific trends of dementia and stroke in Italy Compared to European and high-income countries and the world: global implications.Journal of neurology · 2024Article
- Building a Systems Map: Applying Systems Thinking to Unhealthy Commodity Industry Influence on Public Health Policy.International journal of health policy and management · 2024Article
- Urinary concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites and childhood obesity.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Investigating the Impact of Food Rewards on Children's Motivation to Participate in Sport.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The Metabolic Matrix: Re-engineering ultraprocessed foods to feed the gut, protect the liver, and support the brain.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
- Elements behind sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy eating habits in individuals with severe obesity.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2022Article
- Obesity, Diabetes Mellitus, and Vascular Impediment as Consequences of Excess Processed Food Consumption.Cureus · 2022Review
- Body Composition and Metabolic Status of Italian and Spanish University Students: Relationship with Fruit and Vegetable Consumption.Nutrients · 2022Article
- Bacteriological Quality and Public Health Risk of Ready-to-Eat Foods in Developing Countries: Systematic Review and Meta Analysis.Microbiology insights · 2022Review
- Assessment of the Commitments and Performance of the European Food Industry to Improve Population Nutrition.International journal of public health · 2022Article
- Blackcurrant (Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Baseline prevalence of high blood pressure and its predictors in a rural adult population of Bangladesh: Outcome from the application of WHO PEN interventions.Journal of clinical hypertension (Greenwich, Conn.) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate the effect of fast food consumption on mean population body mass index (BMI) and explore the possible influence of market deregulation on fast food consumption and BMI.
methodsThe within-country association between fast food consumption and BMI in 25 high-income member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development between 1999 and 2008 was explored through multivariate panel regression models, after adjustment for per capita gross domestic product, urbanization, trade openness, lifestyle indicators and other covariates. The possible mediating effect of annual per capita intake of soft drinks, animal fats and total calories on the association between fast food consumption and BMI was also analysed. Two-stage least squares regression models were conducted, using economic freedom as an instrumental variable, to study the causal effect of fast food consumption on BMI.
findingsAfter adjustment for covariates, each 1-unit increase in annual fast food transactions per capita was associated with an increase of 0.033 kg/m2 in age-standardized BMI (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.013-0.052). Only the intake of soft drinks--not animal fat or total calories--mediated the observed association (β: 0.030; 95% CI: 0.010-0.050). Economic freedom was an independent predictor of fast food consumption (β: 0.27; 95% CI: 0.16-0.37). When economic freedom was used as an instrumental variable, the association between fast food and BMI weakened but remained significant (β: 0.023; 95% CI: 0.001-0.045).
conclusionFast food consumption is an independent predictor of mean BMI in high-income countries. Market deregulation policies may contribute to the obesity epidemic by facilitating the spread of fast food.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.