Adolescent Health Behaviors according to Body Mass Index

Abstract

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to check the obesity of middle and high school students in the nation and identify factors influencing their obesity. Methods: The present study is a secondary analysis research that obtained permission to use the primitive data of 10th (2014) Online Survey on Adolescents' Health Behaviors by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and analyzed the primitive data according to the purposes. Results: The findings show that the BMI of middle and high school students in the nation was 20.7 kg/m 2 with the obesity and non-obesity group recording 27.0 kg/m 2 and 19.9 kg/m 2 , respectively. Factors influencing the obesity of adolescents include gender, grade, educational background of parent, school grades for the last 12 months, satisfaction with sleep, fast food consumption, ramen consumption, intense and muscle exercise three times a week or more, subjective sense of health, stress, suicidal ideation, and hours of Internet usage per week. Conclusion: For the management of adolescent obesity, there is a need for obesity management programs taking the characteristics of male students into consideration. The possibilities of obesity grow according to the grades, which means that both the teachers and parents should offer more guidance on weight control in upper grades. The adjustment of adolescent obesity requires psychological health management including stress and suicidal ideation as well as diet control and exercise. It is also needed to apply a stepwise obesity management program according to the hours of internet usage and dependence on the internet.

Factors associated with Obesity among Korean Adolescents based on the Seventh Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016)

“…Unlike the results of previous studies [8,9], in which the prevalence of obesity varied according to sex, age, and families' socioeconomic level, no significant differences were found in this study in age, sex, place of residence, or household income among the normal-weight, overweight, and obese groups. In the overweight group, 62.1% and 37.9% of the participants were male and female, respectively, while the sex distribution was more similar in the obese group, with proportions of 52.4% and 47.6% for male and female participants, respectively.…”

“…The discrepancy between our results and those of previous research that used national-level data likely due to differences over time between 2013 and 2016, as well as differences in the subjects themselves and obesity classification standards. The study of Lee and Yi [9] was conducted on middle school students, and the study of Im et al [8] classified adolescents with a ≥BMI 25 kg/m 2 as obese.…”

“…Sociodemographic characteristics were investigated in terms of age, sex, place of residence, household income, and self-rated body shape, based on a previous study that reported that sex [8,9], age [8], socioeconomic status [8,9], and self-perceptions of obesity [4] were associated with obesity. As for place of residence, those who lived in a neighborhoodlevel administrative unit (dong) were classified as living in an urban area, while the administrative units of towns (eup) and townships (myeon) were considered rural areas.…”

“…Based on a previous study showing that obesity was associated with nutrient intake [8,12], physical activity [6,9], and sleep [9,14,20], lifestyle factors were investigated using data on nutrient intake, physical activity, sleep, and efforts to control weight. Nutrient intake was analyzed in terms of calorie, protein, fat, and carbohydrate intake calculated through an analysis of the foods eaten on the day before the investigation using the 24-hour recall method.…”

“…Obesity occurs due to genetic and environmental factors, although genetic or endocrine disorders are implicated in rare cases, and it is known that sociodemographic characteristics, such as sex, age, and socioeconomic status, and lifestyle factors, such as nutrient intake, activity levels, and sleep, show complex associations with obesity [6,7]. A recent study conducted on Korean adolescents reported that the risk of obesity was higher in male adolescents than in female adolescents [8,9], as adolescents became older [8], and in adolescents with a lower family income [8,9].…”