the assessment of eating behaviors of obese, over weight and normal weight adolescents in shiraz, southern iran

background obesity is one of the most common nutritional problems in adolescent. knowing eating behavior of adolescents improve our understanding about this pandemic and helps design an appropriate preventive and care plan. methods in a cross-sectional study, 372 students selected randomly from 8 guidance schools of shiraz, iran, during august-december 2009. body weight was measured to the nearest 0.1 kg, height was measured in bare feet to the nearest 0.5 cm. adolescents with a body mass index (bmi)over the 85th but less than 95th percentile are considered overweight and those with a bmi greater than the 95th percentile are considered obese. eating behaviors was assessed using dutch eating behavior questionnaire (debq). the analysis was performed using the spss statistical software version 13. a p value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. result the mean age of adolescent was 13.43±0.973 years. of population studied, 23.9%, 22.35% and 53.8% were found to be obese, overweight and normal weight there was significant differences between restrained and external eating score in obese and overweight groups (p=0.0001). restrained eating score in obese and overweight adolescent was higher than those of normal weight group. there was no significant difference between emotional eating behavior in adolescent (p>0.05). there was a positive significant correlation between dietary restriction and bmi (r=0.36) in adolescent (p=0.000). conclusion understanding the individual differences in eating behaviors is the first step in modifying programs for obesity. emotional eating behavior is also recommended to be considered in designing preventive programs.