Weight misperception and psychosocial health in normal weight Chinese adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the association between weight misperception and psychosocial health problems among normal weight Chinese adolescent boys and girls.


METHODS
In the Youth Smoking Survey 2003-04, 20 677 normal weight students aged 11-18 years from 85 randomly selected schools throughout Hong Kong were analysed. Students who perceived themselves as very thin, thin, fat or very fat were classified as having weight misperception in contrast to the reference group who correctly perceived themselves as normal weight. Psychosocial health outcomes included headache, feeling stressful, feeling depressed, poorer appetite, sleepless at night, having nightmares and less confidence in getting along with friends. Logistic regression yielded adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for each outcome by weight misperception in boys and girls separately.


RESULTS
In girls, misperceived fatness was associated with all outcomes, while misperceived thinness was associated with poorer appetite and less confidence. Boys who misperceived themselves as very thin or fat had greater odds of all outcomes except having nightmares. In general, greater ORs were observed for misperceived fatness than thinness in girls, but similar ORs were observed in boys. Misperceived thinness and fatness accounted for 0.6% to 45.1% of the psychosocial health problems in adolescents.


CONCLUSIONS
Normal weight adolescents with weight misperception were more likely to have psychosocial health problems, and the associations were stronger for extreme misperceptions (i.e., very fat or very thin) in both boys and girls.
Lo
Wing-Sze
WS
School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Ho
Sai-Yin
SY
Mak
Kwok-Kei
KK
Lai
Hak-Kan
HK
Lai
Yuen-Kwan
YK
Lam
Tai-Hing
TH
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D000367:Age Factors; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D001828:Body Image; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010465:Perception; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires