Contents - Previous - Next  Body mass index and economic
productivity  Evidence of nutrition/productivity links Women's
BMI and productivity Summary and conclusions  E. Kennedy and M.
Garcia  International Food Policy Research Institute, 120017th
Street, N.W, Washington, DC 20036, USA  The paper reviews the
evidence to date on the nutritional links with productivity and
then goes on to provide results from a multi-country study on
the effects of increasing body mass index (BMI) on productivity.
The research relating nutritional status to work capacity is
more consistent than the research linking nutritional status to
productivity. None of the studies to date elucidate the pathways
through which improved nutrition improves economic productivity.
In addition, many of the studies that have been conducted on the
nutrition/wage links have been based on samples that contained a
disproportionate number of male subjects. The few studies that
have disaggregated data by gender report different results for
men and women