Abstract
Niigata City in Japan and Khabarovsk City in Russia signed a sister city agreement in 1965 and have been interacting with each other for a long time. We have been conducting comparative research on the elderly between the two cities, but there is no research on the young. Distorted perception of body weight and unnecessary dieting behavior in adolescent girls is considered a problem in both Japan and Russia. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to clarify the distortion of weight perception and diet behavior of adolescent girls in both the countries. In addition, it was decided to investigate the eating habits of people in both the countries. In total, 195 15-year-old girls from Niigata, Japan (October 2020) and 286 girls from Khabarovsk, Russia (February 2017) were surveyed. The questionnaire used was an excerpt from the World Health Organization survey on the health behavior of school-age children. The proportion of Japanese adolescent girls who perceived themselves as overweight (distorted body weight perception) was 60.5%, which was significantly higher than that of Russian adolescent girls at 30.1% (p < 0.001). In addition, the prevalence of weight loss behavior in Japan was 34.9% (n = 68), which was significantly higher than that in Russia with 27.3% (n = 78) (p < 0.001). Adolescent girls in Japan had more serious problems with weight perception, but had fewer problems with breakfast and vegetable intake habits than those in Russia. From a young age, perception of correct body shape and establishment of eating habits are important not only for current health but also for future health. We need to carefully educate adolescent girls that their body undergoes major changes through secondary sexual characteristics during adulthood.
Highlights
In Japan, a high proportion of women are thin from adolescence into their 20s, which is a social problem [1]
The groups are classified into four parts: Group 0, adolescents who perceived themselves as not fat and not overweight; Group 1, adolescents who perceived themselves as fat and real weight was overweight/obese; Group 2, adolescents who perceived themselves as not fat but real weight was overweight/obese; Group 3, adolescents who perceived themselves as fat, but real weight was not overweight/obese
The percentage of Japanese adolescents who eat fruit every day was 17.4%, which was significantly lower than the Russian value of 28.3% (p = 0.006)
Summary
In Japan, a high proportion of women are thin from adolescence into their 20s, which is a social problem [1]. In 2013, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced, “The second term of National Health Promotion Movement in the twenty-first century (Health Japan 21, the second term),” hereinafter “National Movement from 2013 fiscal year to 2022 fiscal year” as a basic policy to comprehensively advance the promotion of health among its people, with the goal of reducing the percentage of women in their 20s who are thin to less than 20% [2]. As a result, according to the 2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the percentage of women in their 20s who were thin was 19.8% [3]. To reduce the proportion of thin women in their 20s, healthy eating behaviors of adolescents and teenagers are important
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