Negative Impacts Of Obesity More Among Boys

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obese childFrom Your Health Journal…..”A great article today on Zee News an Australian publication I enjoy reading and promoting, which posted an article about the negative impacts of obesity on boys. Most times, we only hear about how obesity affects girls, their lives, their routine, and their self esteem. We know that this has a major impact on their lives, but it would also seem obvious it would affect boys just as harsh. A new Australian study has found obese boys have a significantly lower than average quality of life and excess weight amongst teens, particularly in boys, appeared to be associated with decreased life satisfaction. The study, published in American Journal of Adolescent Health by researchers from Sydney`s Westmead Millennium Institute (WMI), said the results were surprising to find “negative psycho-social impacts of obesity were greater on teenage boys than upon teenage girls”. In my opinion, kids are kids, and equally upset over the quality of life, whether they are male or female. The main thing is to find a happy medium with these children – to improve the quality of their lives through healthy lifestyle, love and support. Please visit the Zee News web site to read the complete article. It was well written and informative, the link is provided below.”

From the article…..

A new Australian study has found obese boys have a significantly lower than average quality of life and excess weight amongst teens, particularly in boys, appeared to be associated with decreased life satisfaction.

The study, published in American Journal of Adolescent Health by researchers from Sydney`s Westmead Millennium Institute (WMI), said the results were surprising to find “negative psycho-social impacts of obesity were greater on teenage boys than upon teenage girls”.

“The findings suggest that an unhealthy weight status and excess body fat could negatively impact on the mental and physical wellbeing of adolescents, particularly in boys,” the lead author of the study Bamini Gopinath said yesterday.

“The findings highlight the value of assessing quality of life among adolescents with excess weight in both clinical practice and research studies.”

“Girls in this study who were either overweight or obese did not have significantly different quality of life scores compared to normal-weight girls,” said Gopinath.

Gopinath, a senior research fellow at WMI, said the reasons for the difference were unknown, but she speculated it might be because of the importance of sport to boys.

“If obesity is limiting their participation in sport, it might negatively affect their social functioning and/or physical functioning, both of which are measured as part of the total score.”

The researchers found the quality of life (QOL) score improved for previously overweight boys and girls who lost weight to fit into the normal weight range.

The start of the study, in 2004-2005, involved 1,688 teenage schoolchildren attending 21 randomly chosen Sydney schools.

When the study began, the children had an average age of 12.7 and they were measured for height, weight, Body Mass Index, percentage of body fat and waist circumference and categorised into five ethnic groups.

To read the complete article…..Click here