Attempts to lose weight among overweight and non-overweight adolescents: a cross-national survey

Abstract

BackgroundDespite the global obesity epidemic, few studies have performed cross-national comparisons of adolescents' attempts to lose weight and weight control practices. This study aims to investigate matters mentioned above by weight status in Europe, Israel, and North America.MethodsNationally representative samples of adolescents from over 30 countries completed an anonymous, standardized questionnaire as part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children 2001/2002 survey. The prevalence and likelihood of attempts to lose weight were determined. The effect of weight status, self-perception of overweight, age and country of residence upon the likelihood of current attempts to lose weight were evaluated using multilevel multivariate logistic regression in separate analyses for boys and girls. The study also presented the prevalence of weight control practices of overweight and non-overweight adolescents who had controlled their weight in seven countries.ResultsIn general, overweight and obese adolescents were more likely to be engaged in current attempts to lose weight and had tried to control their weight during the past 12 months more often than non-overweight adolescents. Besides weight status, self-perception of overweight and age were significant individual-level factors determining current attempts to lose weight. Country of residence was a significant second-level factor but no clear geographical pattern was found. Several gender-related differences existed.ConclusionThe findings indicated that most overweight adolescents were motivated to reduce their weight. The importance of promoting a healthy body image for all adolescents was highlighted by the fact that self-perception of overweight was found to be the most important factor leading to attempts to lose weight.

Gender Differences in Body Mass Index, Body Weight Perception, weight satisfaction, disordered eating and Weight control strategies among Indian Medical and Nursing Undergraduates

“…(23) These findings indicate an urgent concern as these individuals may engage in undue weight loss practices and may put themselves at risk of nutritional deficiencies. (24) Body weight dissatisfaction is common in many modern societies and it appears to have grown over time. (7) Widely published literature (21) indicates that females were more dissatisfied with their body weight than males.…”

Insatisfação com o peso corporal e fatores associados em adolescentes

“…Além disso, muitos jovens, embora estejam com peso adequado, referem estar insatisfeitos com seu peso (17) . Sendo assim, o objetivo do presente estudo foi estimar a ocorrência de insatisfação com peso corporal e os fatores associados ao desejo de aumento e redução de peso corporal em adolescentes de ambos os sexos, de 15 a 19 anos.…”

Patterns in weight reduction behaviour by weight status in schoolchildren

“…Prevalence rates of dieting among non-overweight children vary between countries, which in part relates to the range of questions used to define dieting status, and the age range and time frame under investigation. In a crossnational study, current dieting among non-overweight girls ranged from 9 % (Netherlands) to 28 % (Denmark) (37) . Studies from Spain (38) and Portugal (including boys) (33) provide estimates of 4?3 % and 6 %, respectively.…”

“…It is difficult to compare the extent of this problem to other studies due to methodological differences, but this is the first study to report this phenomenon among primary and post-primary schoolchildren in Ireland. In a cross-national survey conducted in 2001-2002 that included 13-and 15-year-old children, rates of current dieting to lose weight among nonoverweight girls and boys in Ireland were 20 and 4 %, respectively (37) . The difference between these two studies is likely to reflect the increase in prevalence of dieting with age among girls.…”

“…Other studies, with data on non-overweight youth, explored eating disorder development among overweight children (27,38,40) and among restrained eaters (29) . Although dieting among non-overweight children is well recognised and the types of weight control practices employed by this group have been explored to some extent (28,37,41) , the simultaneous investigation of diet and the context of eating, in addition to perception of health, emotional well-being and somatic symptoms among non-overweight dieting children, has not been reported. Therefore, the current study examined non-overweight schoolchildren who were attempting to lose weight, aged 10-17 years in Ireland, with the aim of exploring outcomes such as food habits and food-related behaviour, in addition to the risks of poor self-reported health, negative body image and subjective health complaints associated with weight-reduction behaviours.…”