kjhp Korean Journal of Health Promotion Korean J Health Promot 2234-2141 2093-5676 The Korean Society of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention 10.15384/kjhp.2015.15.3.129 kjhp-15-129 Original Article Association between Actual or Perceptional Weight Status and Mental Health Issues in Adolescents in Korea KimHye-Shin JangJun-Hwan LeeKeun-Mi JungSeung-Pil KeumShin-Ho Department of Family Medicine, Yeungnam University Medical Center, Yeungnam University College of Medicine, Daegu, Korea Corresponding author：Seung-Pil Jung, MD, PhD Department of Family Medicine, Yeungnam University Medical Center, Yeungnam University College of Medicine, 170 Hyeonchung-ro, Nam-gu, Daegu 42415, Korea Tel: +82-53-620-3542, Fax: +82-53-654-2413 E-mail: spjung@yu.ac.kr 122015 19122015 153 129135 09022015 02072015 Copyright © 2015 The Korean Society of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background

Mental health issues in adolescents have recently emerged as a social concern. Previous studies reported that there was a relationship between body image perception and mental health. The purpose of this study was to determine the correlations between actual or perceptional weight status and mental health issues in adolescents in Korea.

 Methods

Data was based on the 5th National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Data (2010-2012). The subjects were 1989 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years. Depending on the actual or perceptional weight status, participants were divided into several groups. Mental health indicators included experiencing stress, depressed mood and suicidal ideation.

 Results

The multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted controlling for age, abdominal obesity, smoking and alcohol use, potency of exercises, and household income. Although this study did not find a correlation between actual weight status and mental health variables, it did find that girls who perceived themselves as overweight were more likely to experience stress (odds ratio, 2.24; 95% CI, 1.41-3.56) and depressed mood (odds ratio, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.01-3.62).

 Conclusions

Adolescent females in Korea who perceived themselves as overweight experienced significantly more stress and depressed mood.

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This graph illustrates the association between the self-perceptional weight status and mental health problem. Values are presented as percentage. P-value was calculated by chi-square test (P=0.049).

Characteristics of subjectsa

Mental health problem P
No (unweighted n=1,325) Yes (unweighted n=664)
% (SD of %) % (SD of %)
Sex <0.001b
Male 59.1 (1.6) 46.4 (2.2)
Female 40.9 (1.6) 53.6 (2.2)
Age, y 15.0±0.1 15.3±0.1 0.002c
Overweightd 0.185b
Yes 17.0 (1.3) 20.2 (1.9)
No 83.0 (1.3) 79.8 (1.9)
Abdominal obesitye 0.151b
Yes 8.1 (0.9) 10.6 (1.5)
No 91.9 (0.9) 89.4 (1.5)
Smoking 0.084b
Yes 18.4 (1.4) 22.4 (2.0)
No 81.6 (1.4) 77.6 (2.0)
Alcohol use <0.001b
Yes 24.7 (1.6) 37.4 (2.4)
No 75.3 (1.6) 62.6 (2.4)
METs 0.257b
<600 23.6 (1.5) 20.3 (1.8)
600-3,000 51.4 (1.6) 52.0 (2.2)
>3,000 25.0 (1.4) 27.7 (2.1)
Try to adjust weight <0.001b
Efforts for reducing weight 33.1 (1.6) 47.7 (2.5)
Efforts for maintaining weight 18.1 (1.4) 14.2 (1.7)
Efforts for increasing weight 11.9 (1.1) 11.7 (1.5)
No efforts 36.9 (1.6) 26.5 (2.0)
Incomef 15.1 (1.5) 16.5 (2.1) 0.548b

Abbreviations: SD, standard deviations; METs, metabolic equivalents.

Values are presented as percentage (SD) or mean±SD.

Calculated by chi-square test.

Calculated by t-test.

Defined as overweight: body mass index (BMI) ≥85% in 2007 Korean National Growth Charts.

Defined as abdominal obesity: Waist circumference ≥90% in 2007 Korean National Growth Charts.

Defined as household income level ≤25%.

Associations between mental health indicators and weight statusa

Actual body weight Perceptional body weight
Male Female Male Female
Average and below Overweight Pb Average and below Overweight Pb Average and below Overweight Pb Average and below Overweight Pb
Stress 22.8 20.9 0.613 27.7 38.5 0.010 22.0 23.5 0.676 24.6 38.8 <0.001
Depressed mood 9.1 6.7 0.308 12.1 15.9 0.340 9.1 7.8 0.571 10.3 17.3 0.013
Suicidal ideation 8.4 10.4 0.438 18.4 25.5 0.119 7.9 10.8 0.219 16.8 25.0 0.019

Values are presented as percentage.

Calculated by chi-square test.

Risk for mental health issues according to weight statusa

Stress Depressive mood Suicidal ideation
Actual overweight
Male 0.81b (0.42-1.57)c 1.04b (0.36-2.99)c 1.35b (0.49-3.69)c
Female 1.84b (1.00-3.40)c 1.26b (0.48-3.30)c 1.12b (0.56-2.22)c
Perceptional overweight
Male 1.37b (0.80-2.36)c 1.36b (0.57-3.27)c 1.99b (0.91-4.32)c
Female 2.24b (1.41-3.56)c 1.91b (1.01-3.62)c 1.41b (0.83-2.38)c

A reference was average and below weight group; Adjusted for age, abdominal obesity, smoking, alcohol use, potency of exercise, household income.

Calculated by multiple logistic regression analysis.

95% confidence interval.