PR Newswire — February 8, 2010
CINCINNATI, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Three in ten overweight teensbelieve they are actually underweight or “about right,” according to a study ofmore than 65,000 high school students.
“Despite growing attention to the issue of obesity over the past several years,the number of overweight adolescents who misperceive their weight has heldsteady between 1999 and 2007,” says Nicholas M. Edwards, MD, MPH, AssistantProfessor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center andprimary investigator on the study.
The study, performed at the University of Minnesota and published online todayin Pediatrics, used data in the CDC’s national Youth Risk Behavior SurveillanceSystem to compare each adolescent’s body mass index (BMI) to their owndescription of their weight.
The data indicates that males are twice as likely to misperceive their weight astheir female classmates, and African-American and Hispanic youth aresignificantly more likely to misperceive their weight than their Caucasianpeers.
After adjusting for age, race/ethnicity and BMI percentile, the study found thatoverweight accurate perceivers of both genders had significantly higher odds ofreporting several healthy weight-related behaviors.
“Although families and clinicians need to be careful and non-judgmental whendiscussing the health dangers of being overweight, our study shows that thosewho understood that they were overweight were not more likely to engage in riskyweight-related behaviors, such as vomiting or taking medications,” says Dr.Edwards. “In fact, those who understood they were overweight were more likely toreport doing the right things for weight control, such as exercising and eatingless.”
The study’s authors hope these findings will encourage clinicians to delvedeeper to understand their patients’ perceptions of their weight status. Afterdiscovering how their patients perceive their weight, clinicians may be betterable to individualize their approach to overweight patients and provide tailoredsupport throughout the weight management process.
Funding support came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention throughthe Adolescent Health Protection Program at the University of Minnesota.
About Cincinnati Children’s
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is one of 10 children’s hospitalsin the United States to make the Honor Roll in U.S. News and World Reports2009-10 America’s Best Children’s Hospitals issue. It is #1 ranked for digestivedisorders and is also highly ranked for its expertise in respiratory diseases,cancer, neonatal care, heart care, neurosurgery, diabetes, orthopedics, kidneydisorders and urology. One of the three largest children’s hospitals in theU.S., Cincinnati Children’s is affiliated with the University of CincinnatiCollege of Medicine and is one of the top two recipients of pediatric researchgrants from the National Institutes of Health.
President Barack Obama in June 2009 cited Cincinnati Children’s as an “island ofexcellence” in health care. For its achievements in transforming health care,Cincinnati Children’s is one of six U.S. hospitals since 2002 to be awarded theAmerican Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize for leadershipand innovation in quality, safety and commitment to patient care. The hospitalis a national and international referral center for complex cases. Additionalinformation can be found at www.cincinnatichildrens.org.
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