Özet:

Obesity is a devastating health problem in developed and developing countries. There is no clear relationship between socioeconomic status and obesity. Income inequality is increasing due to the increase in the poverty rate in Turkey. In order to understand the increasing obesity and income inequality problem in Turkey, it is necessary to investigate the role of income inequality on obesity prevalence. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between poverty status and obesity/overweight. Two different methods were used in the study. In the first, a probit model was created by ignoring the endogeneity of poverty in the relationship between obesity and poverty. In the second, Recursive bivariate probit model was preferred, which considers the simultaneous relationship between obesity and poverty and the endogeneity of poverty. In the analysis, we use Health Survey of Turkish Statistical Institute for the year 2019. It was concluded that there is a negative relationship between poverty and obese/overweight for both models. It was concluded that there is an endogeneity problem between the two variables and that poverty reduces the probability of obesity/overweight by 21.6%. In addition, important factors such as age, gender, education status, marital status, employment status, smoking and alcohol use are statistically significant on obesity/ overweight and poverty. One of the important findings is that the increase in the level of education has a decreasing effect on the possibility of poverty and being obese/overweigh.

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