Modelling Inequalities in Health in Australia in the Area of Obesity

Obesity is one of the most important medical and public health problems of our time. We aim to: develop underlying models of how economics can be useful in the study of the growth of obesity, and; use available datasets to model econometrically this growth in obesity and the determinants of this rapid increase. This will involve examining which groups in society in may be most useful to target, in terms of behavioural change, using health promotion and public health interventions, especially testing the impact of WHO boundaries and definitions of who is obese.