The Relationship between Weight Concern and Relative Behaviors Among the Seventh Graders in Taipei City and Hsin-chu County

• Main Authors: Chien-Chin Chen, 陳建今
• Other Authors: 李蘭
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/96508852653499529389

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 衛生政策與管理研究所 === 96 === This study explored the relationship between weight concern and relative behaviors in 2,166 seventh graders in Taipei City and Hsin-chu County. Data of “Children and Adolescent Behaviors in Long-term Evolution (CABLE)” were used for secondary data analysis. Logistic regression was employed to analyze. We found that 88.87% of the sample reported eating breakfast regularly within the past 7 days, 58.31% reported exercising regularly, and 9.04% reported having ever smoking. Then, we found that 42.77% of the sample hoped to lose weight, 7.67% hoped to gain weight, and the others did not hope to change their weight. Moreover, we also found that one-fourth of the sample had normal weight but still hope to lose weight. After logistic regression analysis, there were several important results as following. Firstly, when compared to those who didn’t hope to change weight (as the reference group), people who hope to lose weight were significantly less likely to eat breakfast regularly within a week (OR =0.517). Among females, girls who want to lose weight were significantly less likely to eat breakfast regularly than the reference group (OR =0.506). Secondly, we found that males who want to gain weight were significantly less likely to exercise regularly than the reference group (OR =0.447); females who want to gain weight were significantly more likely to exercise regularly (OR =2.160). Thirdly, weight concern was not associated with their smoking behavior. According to the results, it was suggested that health and educational organizations should promote more weight-related programs and prevent adolescents from over-concerning about their weight or practicing extreme weight control behaviors. Also, to encourage adolescents who had the attempts to change weight to build healthy lifestyles, especially not take skipping breakfast as one of the weight control strategies.