Influential Factors of Difference between Actual Obesity and Perceptional Obesity among Korean Adolescents

Abstract

This study analyses "Survey of Health and Behavior of Children and Adolescents" which is conducted by National Youth Policy Institute that investigated influential factors in difference between actual obesity and perceptional obesity. GLM (Generalized Linear Mode) was carried out to estimate the effects on the eating habits and physical activities and multinomial logit analysis was carried out to examine the influential factors in difference between actual, obesity and perceptional obesity. The results of this study are shown as follows.First 72.0% of total respondents showed the congruence between actual obesity and perceptional obesity and 24.6% of total respondents perceived them fatter than actual. The remaining 3.5% perceived them thinner than actual.Second, the main effects of actual obesity and perceptional obesity on eating habits were statistically significant, but interaction effect between them was not statistically significant. The main effects of actual obesity and perceptional obesity on physical activities and interaction effect between them were all statistically significant.Third, the influential factors in difference between actual obesity and perceptional obesity were gender, age, school record, education of parents, subjective economic status, and living together with family.