ABSTRACT

Although several studies of highly developed countries find tobacco control efforts impact obesity rates, whether such results extend to less developed countries is unclear. Accordingly, this study re-examines this issue by using data from countries that lie across the development spectrum. Similar to the existing literature, evidence suggests higher cigarette prices increase the per cent of the population that is overweight or obese. Yet, other tobacco control efforts have less influence. A number of other factors, including health-care expenditure, urban concentration and undernourishment, are also found to influence population weight.