Abstract

Underweight or overweight in adolescence is linked to several adverse health outcomes. Less evidence exists about the association between weight status and school-related psychosocial characteristics in high income countries. We sought to investigate the relationship between weight status and psychosomatic and school-related complaints with a focus on gender differences. The study is a cohort of 18,462 adolescents (12–19 years; 51% girls) conducted in Sweden. The associations between weight status and psychosomatic and school-related complaints were estimated by binary logistic regression adjusted for several potential confounders. After correction for multiple testing, being underweight or overweight/obese was adversely associated with several psychosomatic and school-related complaints with significant differences between boys and girls. Specifically, underweight boys had higher odds to have psychosomatic complaints than normal-weight boys, while no such associations were observed among underweight girls. Overweight/obese (vs. normal-weight) boys had higher odds to complain about headache, pain in the back/hips, and feeling low. Overweight/obese (vs. normal-weight) girls were more likely to complain about feeling low, anxious/worried and having difficulty in falling asleep (P ≤ 0.01). In relation to school-related complaints (e.g., being bullied at school and academic failure), greater associations were observed for overweight/obese girls and boys than for underweight adolescents compared with normal-weight peers.

Details

Title
Important gender differences in psychosomatic and school-related complaints in relation to adolescent weight status
Author
Brooks, Samantha J 1 ; Feldman, Inna 2 ; Schiöth, Helgi B 3 ; Titova, Olga E 4 

 Uppsala University, Department of Neuroscience, Uppsala, Sweden (GRID:grid.8993.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9457); Liverpool John Moores University, Faculty of Health, School of Psychology, Liverpool, UK (GRID:grid.4425.7) (ISNI:0000 0004 0368 0654); University of the Witwatersrand, Neuroscience Research Laboratory (NeuRL), Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, Johannesburg, South Africa (GRID:grid.11951.3d) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 1135) 
 Uppsala County Council, Uppsala, Sweden (GRID:grid.426605.3) (ISNI:0000 0000 9919 9398); Uppsala University, Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden (GRID:grid.8993.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9457) 
 Uppsala University, Department of Neuroscience, Uppsala, Sweden (GRID:grid.8993.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9457); Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology, Moscow, Russia (GRID:grid.448878.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 2288 8774) 
 Uppsala University, Department of Neuroscience, Uppsala, Sweden (GRID:grid.8993.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9457); Uppsala University, Unit of Medical Epidemiology, Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden (GRID:grid.8993.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9457) 
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2549478056
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.