In a large scale national study it has been found that the period of leaving school is a high risk one for obesity and weight gain. The study authors say that obesity rates double in the short transition from adolescence to adulthood in over 1,500 young people included in the study. Proportion classified as overweight rose from 20 per cent in mid-adolescence to 33 per cent by the age of 24. Obesity rose from 3.6 per cent to 6.7 per cent over the same period. Males were particularly at risk, with the rate of overweight males more than doubling from 18 per cent to 39 per cent.
The study conducted by researchers from Melbourne's Murdoch Children’s Research Institute tracked participants over a 10-year period. This is a first study of its kind. Most of the earlier studies have focussed on younger children.
According to lead author George Patton, of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the MCRI, this age was “a time of great risk”. He said, “What we found was that during the mid-to-late teens, one in five were overweight, but by young adulthood this had grown to one in three…Forty per cent of overweight 25-year-olds had never been overweight during their teens, and one in eight obese 25-year-olds had never been overweight prior to leaving school…here's an onset of a whole lot of new weight problems in this transition.”
He explained that the study did not attempt to identify the causes for the weight gain that may include changes in lifestyles, moving into the workforce, leaving the parental home, changes in diet and reduction in sporting activities. He said that serious weight problems were much harder to reverse with none of the participants who were persistently obese during their teenage years getting back to a normal weight by the age of 25.
On the bright side, young people who were overweight for less than twelve months had mostly managed to get back to a normal weight by their early 20s. Young women who became overweight as teenagers were better at returning to a more healthy weight than young men. “Females are more likely to perceive themselves as being overweight at normal weights (while) overweight males are more likely to see themselves as at a normal weight…These differences lead to females being more likely than males to take measures to control their weight and may explain the gender differences in weight gain,” Professor Patton said.
The study was welcomed by Louise Baur, director of the NSW Centre for Overweight and Obesity at the University of Sydney, who said it was an important contribution that “highlights the importance of early adulthood as a vital period for the promotion of healthy lifestyles.” The study was published online by the Journal of Adolescent Health.
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