Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity, and Associated Psychological Problems in Qatari’s Female Population

Abstract

Background:

Dissatisfaction with body weight and the use of unhealthy weight reduction practices have been reported among adolescents.

Objective:

The aim of the present study was to examine the severity of dieting and its association with obesity, body satisfaction and psychological problems in female adolescents.

Subjects:

A representative sample of 800 girls aged 14-19 years were approached during the period October to December 2004 and 566 girls gave consent and participated in the study, thus giving a response rate of 70.8%.

Methods:

Self-reports were obtained from 566 teenage girls using the Adolescent Dieting Scale (ADS) and the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) for psychopathology.

Results:

The prevalence of overweight and obesity for female adolescents were 13.4% vs 1.8%;-; 39.9% were intermediate dieters, and 8.3% were extreme dieters. Dieting was not associated with age but was significantly associated with body mass index (BMI) (p=0.045). Extreme dieting was strongly associated with peer perception of respondent's figure (p< 0.001) and self perception of figure (p=0.016). Additionally, in adult Qatari population overweight and obesity for males were (34.4% vs 34.6%) and for females were (33.0% vs 45.3%). This is significantly higher than adolescent girls. (p< 0.01). The SRQ score was significantly highest in the extreme dieters group (p=0.005). The extreme dieters get most of their education (or information?) about dieting from school(14.0%) and TV(43.6%).

Conclusion:

The present study revealed strong evidence for the association between frequent dieting and overweight, body image dissatisfaction and psychological problems among adolescent females.