Psychological functioning in adolescents with obesity co-morbidities

An understanding of the relationships among obesity severity, medical co-morbidities, and psychological complications is important in the design of interventions to encourage overweight youth and families to accomplish healthy lifestyle changes.

We evaluated associations among psychological status, diagnosed medical co-morbidities consistent with components of the metabolic syndrome, and BMI among 166 obese adolescents (11-18 years) referred for endocrinology consultation. We hypothesized that there would be higher levels of psychological distress among youth with more diagnosed components of the metabolic syndrome (i.e., more medical co-morbidities associated with obesity).

Contrary to expectation, we found that meeting criteria for extreme obesity alone was more predictive of psychological difficulties.

The degree of obesity may be more relevant than the number of associated medical co-morbidities in impacting psychological health. It is important to recognize individual differences between patients in terms of identifying motivating goals for accomplishing weight management.