Researchers in their published study in the “Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicines” explained that the number of American adolescent girls who are overweight has gone up from 14% in the year 1990 to almost 16% in the year 2004.The study reported that such girls have to face many health complications do have a perception based first social consequence as the discrimination on the weight aspect with immediate effects. Researchers feel it very important to identify the responsible factors contributing to the overweight conditions and developing obesity in order to minimize the health and economic burden.

The study highlights such reasons as identified by almost 4,446 adolescent girls who took part in the evaluative study and completed the questionnaires with their respective responses. The girls were required to place their responses on a 10-rung ladder scale in respects of parameters including height, weight, TV watching habits, and dietary practices.

In this joint study, Adina R. Lameshow, at the S.M. Harvard School of Public health, Boston, the New York City Department of Health and Medical Hygiene, and the Bureau of Tobacco Control analyzed results obtained with responses from the adolescent girls. Responses of the girls who placed themselves among the top five ladder point scale holders were also examined and compared with those of the bottom five ladder scale score holders.

The Body mass Index (BMI) was recorded to be increased in the 2001 with 22.1 which was 20.8 in the year 1999. A total of 11.7% of the girls gained for more than two units of the BMI within this two year’s time period.

Researchers also found that the girls who placed themselves at the lower ends of the 10-rung social ladder scale representing school subjective social status scale constituted almost 69% of the total number girls who gained for more than two BMI units when compared to all other adolescent girls.

Various parameters were taken under consideration and adjustment to reach at this conclusion. These included age, race, ethnicity, baseline BMI, diet, television watching, depression, global and social self esteem, menarche, height growth, mother’s BMI, and pretax household income.

The research concluded with the finding that physical behavioral environment and socio-economic factors contribute the increasing prevalence of obesity among the adolescent girls. The study also suggests that low school subjective social status could be an important contributing factor causing a considerable increase in the BMI of the adolescent girls.

Researchers also impressed upon the need to take urgent action in the obesity epidemic with the peer interventions and need to design interventions based on future researches identifying specific ways that peers transmit health related information through innovative means.

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