The Study of the Relationship Between Social, Cultural, Economic Capital, Individual Characteristics and Obesity Among Russian Adults: Longitudinal Modelling of the Three-Level Data

Nowadays according to the World Health Organization, obesity has become an epidemic on a global scale. Socio-epidemiological studies have reported high growth rates in the proportion of obese people in Russia during the transition to a market system. This paper adopts sociological perspective in attempting to identify predictors of obesity among Russian adults. The key conceptual basis is the theory of P. Bourdieu, according to which economic, social and cultural forms of capital (structural parameters, reflecting unequal positions of individuals in a society) directly and through interaction determine one’s health status. This study demonstrates the importance of considering M. Weber’s concept of lifestyle – actualized choices (the indicator of the active agent) in the context of specific life chances, as well as A. Sen’s capability theory. Longitudinal multilevel logistic regression modeling based on data from RLMS-HSE (1995-2005) was applied. The results indicate the positive effect of economic capital and non-linear effect of cultural capital on the probability of obesity; social capital showed no statistical significance in models with control variables. The hypothesis about the impact of the dynamic relationships between forms of capital (interactions) on the probability of obesity was not confirmed. Such predictors as age, cohabitation with a partner, widowhood, and Russian nationality appeared to be positively related to the probability of obesity, while negative association was found for quadratic age, males and urban areas. The critical advantage of the paper is the assessment of moderation effects of structural and agency characteristics, and socio-demographic variables.