Table 5

Effects of Sunshine Hours during Pregnancy and First Years of Life on Adiposity Risk at Age 6: Alternative Measurements of Sunshine Hours and Weather Controls

		Alternative Measures of Sunshine Hours				Weather Controls
	Baseline	Larger Distance (50 Miles)	Uniform Weighting	Closest Weather Station	Sinus Function Weighting of Months	Controls for Average Temperature	Controls for Cumulative Rainfall
	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)
Panel A: Overweight
Sunshine hours in pregnancy	−0.062	−0.038	−0.057	−0.066	−0.059	−0.113	−0.061
	(0.057)	(0.055)	(0.058)	(0.056)	(0.066)	(0.067)	(0.065)
Sunshine hours first 6 months of life	−0.167^**	−0.187^***	−0.161^**	−0.175^**	−0.142^*	−0.215^**	−0.180^**
	(0.07)	(0.048)	(0.068)	(0.071)	(0.073)	(0.105)	(0.073)
Sunshine hours 6–11 months after birth	−0.032	−0.027	−0.034	−0.034	−0.022	−0.069	−0.096
	(0.077)	(0.064)	(0.076)	(0.07)	(0.086)	(0.066)	(0.085)
Sunshine hours 12–80 months after birth	0.005	0.016	0.000	−0.001	0.016	−0.042	0.008
	(0.04)	(0.037)	(0.04)	(0.026)	(0.046)	(0.045)	(0.043)
Panel B: Obesity
Sunshine hours in pregnancy	−0.035	−0.030	−0.035	−0.033	−0.038	−0.070^*	−0.051
	(0.036)	(0.028)	(0.037)	(0.035)	(0.041)	(0.038)	(0.04)
Sunshine hours first 6 months of life	−0.129^**	−0.119^***	−0.126^**	−0.132^***	−0.122^**	−0.172^***	−0.147^***
	(0.049)	(0.039)	(0.049)	(0.048)	(0.05)	(0.06)	(0.047)
Sunshine hours 6–11 months after birth	0.048	0.043	0.043	0.049	0.054	0.026	0.026
	(0.053)	(0.034)	(0.053)	(0.049)	(0.059)	(0.048)	(0.051)
Sunshine hours 12–80 months after birth	−0.008	−0.004	−0.013	−0.006	−0.006	−0.023	−0.010
	(0.02)	(0.016)	(0.018)	(0.011)	(0.021)	(0.037)	(0.021)
Panel C: Severe Obesity
Sunshine hours in pregnancy	−0.008	−0.007	−0.007	−0.008	−0.008	−0.013	−0.015
	(0.014)	(0.012)	(0.014)	(0.014)	(0.015)	(0.02)	(0.016)
Sunshine hours first 6 months of life	−0.062^***	−0.038^*	−0.060^***	−0.066^***	−0.061^***	−0.077^***	−0.065^***
	(0.021)	(0.02)	(0.021)	(0.021)	(0.022)	(0.027)	(0.022)
Sunshine hours 6–11 months after birth	−0.002	0.002	−0.004	0.000	0.002	−0.024	0.004
	(0.017)	(0.017)	(0.017)	(0.016)	(0.019)	(0.02)	(0.019)
Sunshine hours 12–80 months after birth	0.002	0.006	0.001	−0.001	0.005	−0.016	0.002
	(0.009)	(0.009)	(0.009)	(0.005)	(0.01)	(0.016)	(0.01)
Number of observation	666,258	785,686	666,258	666,258	666,258	663,898	665,675

Data sources: School entry examinations, Schleswig‐Holstein, Lower Saxony, Brandenburg. Sunshine hours from 21 weather stations. ^*p < 0.1, ^**p < 0.05, ^***p < 0.01.
Notes: The table shows the effects of 100 additional sunshine hours (in percentage points) during pregnancy, in the first six months after birth, between months six and 12 after birth, and between months 12 and 80 after birth, on children’s risk of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity at age six. Overweight, obesity, and severe obesity are defined, respectively, as ≥85th, ≥95th, and ≥99th percentile in the gender‐ and age (in months)‐specific BMI distributions. All columns estimate linear probability models and control for, as in Equation 1, district‐by‐year of birth and month of birth fixed effects. Column 1 reports our baseline estimates based on up to four weather stations within a 50‐km radius. In Column 2, we increase the radius to 50 miles (including all available 50 districts). In Column 3, we apply a uniform weight to each weather station. In Column 4, we only information on sunshine hours from the closest weather station. In Column 5, we weight sunshine in each month by a sinus function by month where sunshine hours in June and July receive a weight of one. In Columns 6 and 7, we add average temperature and cumulative rainfall in the four intervals as additional controls to our baseline specification. Standard errors are clustered at the “weather station district” level, that is, districts with different weather station combinations (28 clusters).