Analysis of Factors Influencing the Obesity of Adolescents in South Korea

Abstract

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to check the obesity of middle and high school students in the nation and identify factors influencing their obesity. Methods: The present study is a secondary analysis research that obtained permission to use the primitive data of 10th (2014) Online Survey on Adolescents' Health Behaviors by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and analyzed the primitive data according to the purposes.Results: The findings show that the BMI of middle and high school students in the nation was 20.7 kg/m2 with the obesity and non-obesity group recording 27.0 kg/m2 and 19.9 kg/m2, respectively. Factors influencing the obesity of adolescents include gender, grade, educational background of parent, school grades for the last 12 months, satisfaction with sleep, fast food consumption, ramen consumption, intense and muscle exercise three times a week or more, subjective sense of health, stress, suicidal ideation, and hours of Internet usage per week.Conclusion: For the management of adolescent obesity, there is a need for obesity management programs taking the characteristics of male students into consideration. The possibilities of obesity grow according to the grades, which means that both the teachers and parents should offer more guidance on weight control in upper grades. The adjustment of adolescent obesity requires psychological health management including stress and suicidal ideation as well as diet control and exercise. It is also needed to apply a stepwise obesity management program according to the hours of internet usage and dependence on the internet