More and more teenagers are underestimating their weight. Scientists are concerned that this could reduce the effectiveness of obesity prevention policies.
- A study looked at teenagers’ perception of their weight.
- Its authors note that more and more of them underestimate their weight.
- This raises questions about the effectiveness of obesity prevention policies.
“How much do you weigh?“: more than a million adolescents answered this question. These answers were collected as part of a study carried out in collaboration with the World Health Organization. Researchers from different universities around the world used these data to carry out work on adolescents and their perception of their weight.Their results, published in Child and Adolescent Obesityshow that some teenagers underestimate it.
How do teenagers perceive their weight?
The scientists focused on data from more than 745,000 teenagers, from 41 different countries. They were aged 11, 13 or 15 and were interviewed between 2002 and 2018. Using different analytical tools, the researchers analyzed the teenagers’ answers to questions about their weight, which they related to their body mass index. They draw three main conclusions: first, they observed an increase in “underestimated weight status” and a decrease in the “overestimation of weight status”. In the first case, this means that more and more overweight or obese young people tend to consider themselves thinner, in the second, that young people are less likely to overestimate their weight. “Correct perception of weight increased over time in girls, while it decreased in boys., also note the authors. Finally, they observed that these data varied between countries, but that this was not correlated with the prevalence of overweight or obesity at the national level.
Obesity and overweight: a dangerous underestimation?
The underestimation of weight is the finding that worries the authors. “At this age, perceived body weight can influence a young person’s lifestyle choices, such as the amount or type of food they eat and their exercise habits.“, believes the lead author of the research, Dr. Anouk Geraets, from the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Luxembourg. The research team fears that these trends in the perception of body weight reduce “the effectiveness of public health interventions aimed at reducing weight in young people”. Anouk Geraets completes: “young people who underestimate their weight, and therefore do not consider themselves overweight, may not feel the need to lose their excess weight and, as a result, they may make unhealthy lifestyle choices.”
On the other hand, the decrease in the overestimation of weight, which mainly concerned young girls, is good news. For the authors, it could be linked to new physical standards where muscular bodies are more valued for both sexes. “Increasing correct perception of weight and decreasing overestimation may have a positive effect on unnecessary and unhealthy weight loss behaviors in adolescents.”notes Anouk Geraets.
Obesity: what are the risks for the youngest?
More than 340 million children aged 5 to 19 were overweight or obese in 2016, according to data from theWorld Health Organization. “Childhood obesity is associated with an increased risk of obesity, premature death and disability in adulthood, says the WHO. But, in addition to these risks for the future, obese children may have breathing difficulties, an increased risk of fractures, high blood pressure, the appearance of the first markers of cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and psychological problems. .“In fact, overweight and obesity can have a”psychological and social impact”in “society very focused on the cult of thinness”complete Inserm. As for the care, it must be global, both physical and psychological, and personalized.
