Factors Influencing Overweight and Healthy Lifestyles in Adolescents: Supporting Evidence to Guide Effective Interventions

Abstract

Session presented on Sunday, July 27, 2014: Overweight/obesity remains a significant public health problem that threatens the health outcomes of adolescents. Thirty-two percent of youth are now overweight or obese. Substantial health disparities exist with minority youth experiencing even higher rates of these problems. Overweight teens have multiple adverse health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, poor social skills and problems with academic performance. Identifying factors that influence overweight/obesity in adolescents is critical in order to develop targeted interventions to prevent this public health epidemic. The first paper in this symposium will describe the relationships among sleep, gender, mood and weight in adolescents who were participating in the National Institutes of Health funded clinical trial to test the effects of the COPE healthy lifestyles intervention on a variety of important physical, mental health and academic outcomes, which was delivered by trained health teachers in high schools in a large, southwest metropolitan area in the United States. The second paper will describe the differences in key variables that impact overweight/obesity in adolescents participating in the healthy lifestyles intervention trial. The third paper will describe important components of evidence-based interventions to prevent overweight/obesity in at-risk adolescents.