A new study recently published online by the Journal of Adolescent Health, has spent 10 years following a group of 1,520 adolescents from the age of 14 to 24 years old. Their aim was to investigate the shift in weight between adolescence and young adulthood.

The study Overweight and Obesity between Adolescence and Young Adulthood: A 10 year Prospective Cohort Study was led by Professor George Patton, Head of adolescent health research at Melbourne’s Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI).

Overall the results showed that weight gain was shown to increase in the years after teenagers left school, with obesity rates doubling and the proportion of those classified as overweight increasing by two thirds.

Professor George Patton, said adolescence was a time of “tremendous physical and emotional changes” also often accompanied by a “drop-off in exercise and a rise in poor eating … affecting future patterns of weight gain and obesity”.

Results

  • 33% of young adults were overweight or obese by the age of 24 years.
  • Obesity increased from 3.6% to 6.7%.
  • 40% of young adults with a BMI greater than 25 had been persistently at normal weights during adolescence and approximately 80% had been at a normal weight at some point.
  • 50% of obese young adults had never been classified as obese as adolescents.
  • No individual with persistent obesity in adolescence had a BMI less than 25 at 24 years of age.
  • 31% of girls and 59% of boys who had been overweight for only one or two years during adolescence had a BMI greater than 25 at 24 years of age.

“Females are more likely to perceive themselves as being overweight at normal weights (while) overweight males are more likely to see themselves as at a normal weight,” Professor Patton said.

“These differences lead to females being more likely than males to take measures to control their weight and may explain the gender differences in weight gain.”

Conclusions
The data found that there were substantial shifts in overweight and obesity between adolescence and young adulthood.

The majority of adolescents who become overweight or obese during this timeframe do not achieve a normal weight in young adulthood.

Determination to lose weight is more common in those who are less persistently overweight as teenagers, suggesting scope for lifestyle interventions in this subgroup.

“With the obesity epidemic, we have seen a big focus on younger children,” Professor Patton said.
“But we may be missing a real opportunity to take action during adolescence to prevent weight gain in young adults.”

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Journal of Adolescent Health