Abstract
Objective
Changes in weight status from adolescence to adulthood may be associated with varying
social, vocational, economic, and educational outcomes, which may differ by sex. We
studied whether there are differences in adult outcomes by sex for different weight
status changes in the transition to adulthood.
Methods
Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, participants
were categorized by weight status from adolescence into adulthood. We examined self-reported
outcomes in adulthood for living with parents, being married, being a parent, employment,
receipt of public assistance, income, and college graduation by weight groupings (healthy–healthy,
healthy–overweight/obese, overweight/obese–overweight/obese, overweight/obese–healthy).
The effect of changes in weight status on the adult outcomes was modeled, controlling
for sex, age, parental education, and race/ethnicity.
Results
There were differences by sex for many of the self-reported outcomes, especially educational
and economic outcomes. Female subjects who became overweight/obese between adolescence
and adulthood or remained so had worse economic and educational findings as adults
compared to male subjects.
Conclusions
Overall, for female subjects, becoming and remaining overweight/obese was associated
with worse outcomes, while for male subjects, adolescent obesity was more important
than isolated adult obesity. The relationship between obesity and life situations
may be more negative for female subjects in the transition to adulthood. The findings
emphasize that adolescent obesity, and not just obesity isolated in adulthood, is
important for characteristics achieved in adulthood.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Accepted:
March 31,
2014
Received:
October 14,
2013
Footnotes
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
