we find a strong socioeconomic gradient in obesity. Women living in poor and middleincome neighborhoods have a significantly higher probability of obesity than women in wealthy neighborhoods. Between 10 and 15 percent of this socioeconomic gradient in excess body weight can be attributed to differences in the diet quality of FAFH in the food environment. Interestingly, the same type of menus (for example, chicken with rice and _arroz chaufa_ , a fried rice dish) were most frequently consumed across socioeconomic groups, but diet quality differs greatly among the groups. The diet quality of the same menu is, on average, always much lower in neighborhoods of low socioeconomic status compared with high socioeconomic status neighborhoods. When analyzing variation within socioeconomic status, differences in diet quality explain 15 percent of the higher excess body weight in poor neighborhoods, while they explain only 10 percent in more well-off neighborhoods. Hence, women in poorer neighborhoods could benefit slightly more from an improvement in the diet quality of FAFH in their food environment compared with women in more well-off neighborhoods. This result points to the potential value of public health policies that help people, especially in poorer neighborhoods, to make healthier food choices away from home. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the data sets. Section 3 presents the diet quality index defined for the study, while section 4 describes the empirical approach. Section 5 introduces the descriptive and empirical results, and section 6 concludes.

# **2 Data**

The data used in this analysis originate from four sources: (1) the Demographic and Family Health Survey ( _Encuesta Demográfica y de Salud Familiar_ ), which has been published as the continuous demographic and health surveys; (2) the Survey to Measure Nutritional Composition of Meals Most Frequently Consumed away from Home ( _Encuesta para Medir la Composición Nutricional de los Principales Alimentos Consumidos Fuera del Hogar_ , ENCONUT); (3) ENAHO; and (4) the National Survey of Family Budgets (ENAPREF).

The continuous demographic and health survey is part of the traditional demographic and health survey (DHS), which provides nationally representative information on various aspects of maternal and child health. While the standard demographic and health survey had been carried out in Peru at five-year intervals since 1986, the continuous design replaced it in 2004 and is being conducted annually. This allows health information to be monitored on women of reproductive age (15–49) and their children under age 5. The traditional questionnaire covers fertility, mortality, nutrition, and anthropometric information measured by health professionals, as well as individual and household characteristics. For 2013, the data set contains information on 2,106 non-pregnant women of reproductive age living in 40 districts and neighborhoods in the Lima Metropolitan Area (Lima and Callao).

In 2013, the Peruvian National Institute of Statistics and Informatics ( _Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática_ ), with technical support from the National Food and Nutrition Center ( _Centro Nacional de Alimentacion y Nutricion_ in the Ministry of Health) and the support of the World Bank, conducted a unique, representative 5