Association between adolescent substance use and obesity in young adulthood: A group-based dual trajectory analysis

Abstract

Purpose This study investigated whether and how trajectories of substance use in adolescence were associated with obesity trajectories in young adulthood. We hypothesized that: (1) exposure to persistent substance use throughout adolescence may heighten obesity risk in young adulthood; and (2) such associations may differ once gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and obesity status in adolescence, are considered. Methods The study included 5,141 adolescents from the child sample of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and utilized biennial data across the 12 assessments (1986-2008) to examine trajectories of substance use behaviors (i.e., cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and marijuana use) from ages 12 to 18 and obesity trajectories from ages 20 to 24. Group-based dual trajectory modeling was applied to examine sequential associations of trajectories of each type of substance use behavior with obesity trajectories. Results Three distinctive trajectory patterns were respectively identified for cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and marijuana use from ages 12 to 18, as well as for obesity status (BMI ≥ 30) from ages 20 to 24. Taking into account gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and obesity status in adolescence, adolescents with the most problematic smoking trajectory (High-decreasing) were more likely to exhibit a High-obesity trajectory from ages 20 to 24. Also, adolescents with an Increasing marijuana use trajectory were more likely to exhibit an Increased obesity trajectory in young adulthood. Conclusions The current study demonstrates that adolescent substance use is associated with subsequent obesity in young adulthood. The associations appear to differ based on type of substance use and patterns of use.

Estimating the association between metabolic risk factors and marijuana use in U.S. adults using data from the continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

“…Prevalence of overweight or obesity in young adults from the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy and its Outcomes was significantly lower in marijuana users in multivariate-adjusted analyses [9]. In contrast, a study using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth found that, compared to nonuse or low use in adolescence, consistent or increasing patterns of marijuana use in adolescence are associated with an increased risk of obesity [10]. In another study among youth in the United States, frequent marijuana use was associated with overweight status but not obesity in young girls [11].…”

Theoretical Explanation for Reduced Body Mass Index and Obesity Rates in <em>Cannabis</em> Users

“…Waterreus et al (Waterreus et al, 2016) found that a significantly lower percentage of users than non-users were obese (53.7% of non-users, 36.7% of occasional users, and 28.7% of frequent users were obese (P < 0.001). Huang et al (Huang et al, 2013) studied three categories of adolescent Cannabis users; high users, sporadic users, and increasing users. Sporadic and high usage groups showed far lower obesity rates than low users (AOR for sporadic use = 0.2, for high use = 0.1).…”

Challenging Aspects of Managing Hemostasis in Adolescents

“…A recent study that analyzed population-based data of 7,084 community schoolchildren and adolescents showed that school level peer smoking was positively related to adolescent smoking, irrespective of socioeconomic status and background variables of responders [8]. Furthermore, in another study of 5,141 adolescents, an association was demonstrated between adolescence substance abuse and obesity (body mass index above 30) in young adulthood [9]. Growing concern about elevated blood pressure associated with obesity in young adults should be aimed at prevention of adult cardiovascular disease by healthy lifestyle counseling at early ages, as well as avoidance of other preventable risk factors (e.g.…”