Perceptions of adolescents on overweight and obesity: The weight of opinion study

Abstract

Aim:The incidence and prevalence of overweight and obesity are rising around the world. Health promotion planning must be informed by the knowledge, perceptions, motivations and perceived needs of the target population, but little is known about how adolescents perceive overweight and obesity, its causes and solutions. Methods: A cross-sectional, non-representative sample of 12-to 17-year-old boys and girls (n = 58) attending schools in diverse metropolitan areas and one rural area in NSW, Australia. Focus groups were conducted in 2005 and content analysis was used to identify key themes. Results: The students were aware that overweight was becoming increasingly common. They perceived the negative consequences primarily in psycho-social terms, but were also aware of the long-term physical health consequences. Behaviours, appearance, motivation and self-esteem were used as criteria to judge if a person was overweight and the students distinguished between 'healthy' and 'ideal' (physically attractive) weight. The major barriers to maintaining a healthy weight were home, school and community environments in which fatty/high sugar foods were too easily accessible and where opportunities for participating in physical activity were sometimes limited. Student-identified strategies to address the issue encompassed government policy, advertising and media, schools and home. Conclusions: The students have a mature and complex understanding of overweight and its potential solutions, making them likely to be creative contributors and responsive to wide-ranging, multi-component interventions.

Dopamine D2 receptors in addiction-like reward dysfunction and compulsive eating in obese rats

“…Indeed, many overweight individuals express a desire to limit their food consumption, yet struggle to control their intake and repeatedly consume past energy requirements 7, 8. Development of feeding behavior that is insensitive to negative outcome is analogous to the compulsive drug-taking behavior seen in human drug addicts that is similarly impervious to negative consequences 9.…”

Determinants of fruit and vegetable consumption among children and adolescents: a review of the literature. Part II: qualitative studies

“…Stood out as crucial for the children's choice of fruit and vegetables in studies from different country settings [16,29,32,33,38,43-45,49]. Negative aspects of appearance were unripe, mouldy, rotten, wrinkled, "looks horrible", "looks weird", ugly, soggy, and boring.…”

“…The importance of affordability was highlighted in ten studies that indicated that price influenced children's purchases and selection of fruit and vegetables in all country settings [25,27,28,32-35,44-46,49,50]. The study by Hill et al (1998) from New Zealand suggested that children's primary shopping criterion was quantity, i.e.…”

“…The fruit items available were often bruised, brown, old-looking or of poor quality e.g. mushy [27,32,35,40,44,45,49]. The vegetables offered at school were cold, mushy, soggy, dry, looked nasty, had an unpleasant taste and were prepared in a non-appealing manner [29,31,44,45,57].…”

“…Some pupils thought they would purchase more fruit and vegetables if it was easily accessible in refrigerated vending machines at school [35]. Further, the high price of fruit and vegetables in school was highlighted as a barrier for eating fruit and vegetables in school in studies from Scotland and Australia [46,49]. …”