Adolescents from modest households exposed to violence are more at risk of obesity than those from poor families not exposed or from wealthy families affected by violent acts. A study published in Social Science and Medicine has deciphered the mechanism that leads to overweight in these adolescents.
Researchers at Duke University in the United States compared the results of two studies. One was done with 151 children aged 12 to 15 living in low-income households in California (United States), the other with a set of 350 North Carolina children representative of the general student population. . For both studies, the scientists measured the body mass index of the participants before the research and then eighteen months later. For thirty days, the teens carried a cell phone asking them to fill out a questionnaire three times a day. Among the questions: exposure to violence (have you witnessed physical violence at home, at school, in the neighborhood or elsewhere?), Consumption of fast food, sodas and caffeinated drinks, and the consumption of fruits and vegetables. At the same time, a portable device recorded their physical activity by day, and their sleep at night.
No more fast food and sodas
The results indicate poorer quality and shorter sleep at night following exposure to a violent episode, and fatigue the following days for both population groups. On the other hand, the effect of violence on food intake was only seen in the risk group: adolescents from low-income families ate more unhealthy food on days of exposure to violence. This is reflected in particular by an increase in the consumption of sodas, which is particularly predictive of weight gain in adolescence. These results were expected by the team of researchers but one piece of data surprised them: in both groups, witnessing physical violence increased physical activity by 1000 steps compared to the average for the other days.
Obesity affects 20% of adolescents in the United States. The results of this study are therefore particularly interesting in the fight against this scourge, at an age when eating habits and stress management are being established.
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