A Cross-Sectional Study of the Relationship Between Mental Health Problems and Overweight and Obesity in Adolescents

Background: There is a suggested coexistence between obesity and mental health problems in adolescence. The objective of this study was to explore if mental health indices covary with body mass index (BMI) in adolescence and if there were gender-related disparities. Methods: Data were collected in two cross-sectional surveys of 10th-grade students (15–16 years old) carried out in 2002 and 2017. The questionnaires included self-reported height and weight, questions covering mental health using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), lifestyle, and socio-demographic variables. We estimated the associations between SDQ subscale-scores and BMI and the prevalence of overweight and obesity in linear and logistic multivariable models. We also estimated the extent to which gender modified these associations. Results: BMI was positively associated with peer problems (beta (s): 0.08, 95% Confidence Interval 0.01, 0.14), indicating that for every point increase in peer-problems subscore, BMI increased by 0.08 kg/m2. The association between internalizing (i.e., peer and emotional) problems and BMI and conduct problems and BMI was different for boys and girls (p<0.05 for all interactions). Conclusion: In this repeated cross-sectional study across 15 years, we found that mental health problems were associated with BMI in Norwegian adolescents, apparently with different subscales of the SDQ as risk factors for increased BMI in boys and girls. This finding implicates that there is still a need for more research on potential mechanisms connecting mental discomfort to higher BMI in adolescence, and to further explore the gender-related differences in health outcomes.