Women’s age at marriage and obesity in Pakistan
Objectives
This study examines the relationship between marital age and obesity risk among Pakistani women using data from the 2012–13 and 2017–18 Pakistan Demographic and Health Surveys.
Findings
Baseline OLS models show that later marriage is significantly associated with a lower risk of obesity, with stronger effects observed among younger cohorts. Instrumental-variable estimates, exploiting community norms around marital age, confirm the OLS results for urban women, indicating that each additional year of delayed marriage reduces obesity risk by 0.7 percentage points. Analysis of mechanisms highlights fertility patterns, schooling, literacy, labour-force participation, health knowledge, and a reduced spousal age gap as key pathways linking early marriage to higher obesity risk among urban women.
Recommendations
These findings underscore the importance of empowering girls and women with education, health information, and autonomy over marriage decisions, within a policy environment that rigorously enforces child marriage bans, to reduce obesity, obesity related non communicable diseases and associated costs in developing countries.
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