Overweight and Obesity and Their Correlates Among Jordanian Adolescents

Abstract

Detecting the prevalence and the associated factors of overweight and obesity among adolescents is the first step toward proposing intervention strategies.

Social Position, Psychological Stress, and Obesity: A Systematic Review

“…Eight articles assessed BMI in relation to stress levels, and all found that higher stress was associated with higher body weight regardless of how stress was assessed (20,22,25,27,(29)(30)(31)(32). However, in three of these, significant associations were found only in female subjects (22,25,27).…”

“…Research conducted in Kerala, India, showed that higher position in the social hierarchy was associated with higher BMI among adults (21). Among Jordanian adolescents, higher social position was associated with lower BMI (31). Among Bosnianand Albanian-origin adolescents living in six countries, the relationship between social position and BMI differed in the two groups, with Albanians demonstrating lower body weight with higher social class and Bosnians having higher body weight with higher social class (22).…”

“…Seven of these found that higher BMI was associated with lower self-rated diet quality (20), more dieting (28), lower fruit and vegetable consumption (30,32), higher consumption of fried foods (31), and lower dietary fiber intake (30) among both males and females; higher BMI was associated with higher consumption of specific fatty foods in women only (27) and with higher prevalence of dieting among adolescent girls but not boys (22).…”

“…Ten articles assessed body weight in relation to position within the social hierarchy (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)26,(28)(29)(30)(31)(32). Among the seven studies conducted in industrialized countries, four found that higher social position was associated with lower BMI (20,29,30,32), and an additional article reported this relationship in an immigrant population only among women (23).…”

Co-existence of child and adolescent obesity and thinness in a city in Nigeria: Comparison of results derived from different reference standards

“…[22] Our results show that girls were more overweight or obese compared to boys and this has been reported in other studies from developing countries. [7,21,[23][24][25] The reverse is however the case in developed economies were boys are reportedly more overweight or obese than girls. [22,26] The explanation may be found in cultural practices that make boys do the diffi cult tasks that require physical exertion on one hand and that encourage the girls to gain weight in preparation for marriage on the other hand, in developing countries.…”