title: Risk-taking behaviors of adolescents with extreme obesity: normative or not?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Present first published data detailing high-risk behaviors of adolescent high school students (HSS) with extreme obesity (BMI ≥ 99th percentile for age and gender) compared with healthy weight peers (5th-84th percentile).
  
  
  METHODS
  The 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey was used to compare HSS with extreme obesity (N = 410) and healthy weight peers (N = 8669) in their engagement in (1) tobacco use, (2) alcohol/other drug use, (3) high-risk sexual behaviors, and (4) suicidal behaviors. Logistic regression was used to calculate gender-stratified odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), controlling for age and race.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HSS with extreme obesity were similar to healthy weight peers in the prevalence of most behaviors related to alcohol/drug use, high-risk sexual activities, and suicide, with the following exceptions: relative to healthy weight HSS, both male and female students with extreme obesity more frequently reported ever trying cigarettes (female students, adjusted OR: 2.0 [95% CI: 1.3-3.2]; male students, OR: 1.5 [CI: 1.2-2.0]). Compared with healthy weight female students, female students with extreme obesity had lower odds of ever having sex (OR: 0.5 [CI: 0.3-0.9]), but greater odds of drinking alcohol/using drugs before their last sexual encounter (OR: 4.6 [CI: 1.2-17.6]), currently smoking (OR: 2.3 [CI: 1.2-4.4]), and using smokeless tobacco (OR: 4.6 [CI: 1.2-17.2]). Compared with healthy weight male students, male students with extreme obesity had greater odds of smoking before age 13 (OR: 1.4 [CI: 1.0-2.0]).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With few exceptions, HSS with extreme obesity engage in high-risk behaviors at rates comparable with healthy weight peers, sometimes in even more dangerous ways. Health care providers should assess risk-taking behaviors in this cohort.
authors.affiliation: Division of Community and General Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Ave, MLC 7035, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA. megan.ratcliff@cchmc.org
authors.forename: Megan Benoit
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Ratcliff
authors.forename: Todd M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reiter-Purtill
authors.forename: Jennie G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Noll
authors.forename: Meg H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Zeller
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D012016:Reference Values; D012309:Risk-Taking; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States