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To the Editor: In their Commentary on obesity and the economy, Drs Ludwig and Pollack¹ provided some useful suggestions for reducing obesity by taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the global financial crisis. However, their major premise—that obesity will increase in the current economic downturn—is unsupported by existing data. This is often missed by health experts but is of epidemiological significance.

Counterintuitively, health indices from a number of countries since as far back as the 1920s have been shown to improve in economic downturns and decrease in booms.² Obesity in particular is positively correlated with prosperity and decreases with economic downturns.² This might be expected because of the link between obesity and consumption (eg, by increased eating of high energy–dense foods or increased use of effort-saving technology). Major decreases in fat consumption and obesity with unexpected associations with fewer deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and diabetes were observed in . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Garry Egger, MPH, PhD
eggergj@ozemail.com.au
Health and Applied Sciences
Southern Cross University
Lismore, New South Wales, Australia

José A. Tapia Granados, MBBCh, MPH, PhD
Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor

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