Abstract
The objective of this study was to examine the correlation between self-perception of being overweight and weight loss intentions, eating and exercise behaviors, as well as extreme weight-loss strategies for U.S. adolescents. This study uses 50,241 observations from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBSS) 2001–2009, which were nationally representative sample of 9th- through 12th-grade students in both public and private schools in the US. This study finds that, irrespective of the weight status base on self-reported weight and height, adolescents who perceive themselves as overweight have a stronger intention to lose weight, but do not develop better eating and exercise habits, compared with their counterparts of same gender and reported weight status. Normal-weight adolescents, if they perceive themselves as overweight, are more likely to engage in health-compromising weight-loss methods. This study shows that it is critical to transform weight-loss intentions into actual behaviors among overweight/obese adolescents and improve the efficacy of behavioral interventions against childhood obesity. It also highlights the need of establishing a correct perception of body weight among normal weight adolescents to curb extreme weight-loss methods.
Highlights
Childhood obesity has significantly negative social and health consequences during childhood [1] and leads to adulthood obesity [2]
Since we are interested in knowing whether self-perception of being overweight has any effect on adolescents’ weight-loss efforts, we focus on the sample average treatment effect on the treated (SATT): SSSSSSSS =
If the probability of exercising to lose weight is 20% for the self-perceived normal-weight group, an increase of four percentage points from 20% to 24% translates to the treatment effect of 0.04 which is equivalent to a 20 percent increase
Summary
Childhood obesity has significantly negative social and health consequences during childhood [1] and leads to adulthood obesity [2]. The fast growing obesity rate among U.S adolescents, which has quadrupled from 5% in 1980 to 18% in 2009 [3], is largely attributable to unhealthy lifestyle, including poor diet and physical inactivity [4]. Distorted self-perception of weight status is one of the important factors leading to low motivation or self-esteem and the ill-fated intervention programs [7,8]. Overweight individuals need to recognize that their weight status is hazardous to health before they are motivated to make any changes [10,11,12]. Normal-weight adolescents with weight misperception may engage in potentially harmful behaviors such as purging, using laxatives, taking diet pills, and fasting [13,14,15] and expose themselves to a higher risk for eating disorders and depression [10,16].
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