My Overweight Child: Boys with Conduct Disorders More Likely to Become Obese

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Friday, January 22, 2010

Boys with Conduct Disorders More Likely to Become Obese

A new study from Finland has found an association in boys between having mental health problems as children and becoming obese an adults.

The Finnish researchers studied 2946 boys who were eight years old in 1989, and then looked at data from their military examinations when they were between the ages of 18 and 23 years old.
Underweight boys (182) were not included, leaving 2,209 participants.
The males who were overweight or in the top percentile for mental health problems were the ones most likely to be obese as adults.
The mental health problems included in the study were depression, conduct problems, and emotional problems, but not hyperactivity.

"Future studies should address the potential for interventions to reduce obesity risk in young adulthood for boys who manifest conduct problems early in life," the research team wrote in its report in the journal Pediatrics.

Labels: boys, conduct disorders, mental_health