Adolescent Overweight and Obesity: Links to Socioeconomic Status and Fruit and Vegetable Intakes

Jihyun You and Jina Choo
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Jihyun You: College of Nursing, Korea University, Anam-Dong, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul 137-705, Korea
Jina Choo: College of Nursing, Korea University, Anam-Dong, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul 137-705, Korea

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: Whether adolescent overweight/obesity is linked to socioeconomic status (SES) and fruit and vegetable (F/V) intakes has not been confirmed. We aimed to determine whether there is an association between SES and adolescent overweight/obesity and to test the mediating effect of F/V intakes. This cross-sectional study included the data of 63,111 adolescents extracted from the 2013 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. Overweight/obesity was defined as a body mass index ? 85th percentile, while F/V intakes were categorized as high (recommended levels: ?1 fruit serving and ?3 vegetable servings per day) versus low. Among girls, low SES (beta = 0.50, p < 0.001) and F/V intakes (beta = ?0.17, p = 0.038) were both significantly associated with overweight/obesity; the former association was significantly mediated by F/V intakes (Sobel test: z = 2.00, p = 0.046). Among boys, neither SES nor F/V intakes was significantly associated with overweight/obesity. Adolescent overweight/obesity was significantly linked to low SES and F/V intakes among girls only; low SES indirectly increased the risk of overweight/obesity via low F/V intakes. Therefore, promoting F/V intakes for socially disadvantaged girls should be prioritized as a population-based strategy for preventing adolescent overweight/obesity in South Korea.

Keywords: social class; fruit and vegetable intake; adolescent; obesity; overweight (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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