Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27928734›Full record

ArticleDemography2017

The Effects of College on Weight: Examining the "Freshman 15" Myth and Other Effects of College Over the Life Cycle.

Charles L Baum

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Demography, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
13citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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  10. How Health Habits Influence the Physiological Response During a Physical Activity in Extreme Temperatures?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020
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  12. Observational
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Charles L BaumEconomics and Finance Department, Middle Tennessee State University, P.O. Box 27, Murfreesboro, TN, 37132, USA. charles.baum@mtsu.edu.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

This study examines the effects of college on weight over much of the life cycle. I compare weights for college students with their weights before and after college and with the weights of noncollege peers using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). I also examine the longer-term effects of college measured almost three decades later. I find that college freshmen gain substantially less than the 15 pounds rumored to be typical for freshmen. Using difference models, individual-specific fixed-effects models, and instrumental variables models to control for various sources of potential bias, I find that freshman year college attendance is estimated to cause only about a one-pound increase. Supplemental results show that those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds gain more weight during the freshman college year. Longer term, having a college education consistently decreases weight. These negative effects have faded over the last 20 years, and they diminish as respondents approach middle age. These trends are more prevalent for whites and Hispanics than for blacks.

Indexed as

UniversitiesWeight GainAdolescentAdultAge FactorsBody Mass IndexBody WeightFemaleHumansLongitudinal StudiesMaleMiddle AgedResidence CharacteristicsSex FactorsSocioeconomic FactorsStudentsCollegeFreshman 15WeightWeight gain

Identifiers

PMID27928734

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.