The Link Between Mental Health and Obesity: Role of Individual and Contextual Factors

The International Journal of Preventive Medicine has always shown interest in studies on obesity. An interesting article has been recently published in the journal by Jari et al. The paper is on the association between overweight/ obesity and anxiety/depression among Iranian adolescents and uses data of the CASPIAN‐III study. Due to the global epidemic of obesity and the need for evidence‐based practice and policy for prevention, the publication is timely. The study has enrolled a nationally representative school‐based sample of 10‐18 year old adolescents (n = 5,528, 50% females). Based on this study, 8% and 9% of Iranian adolescents are overweight and obese, respectively. In addition, 59% and 63% of the sample have high anxiety and depressive symptoms, respectively. The study does not show an association between overweight/ obesity and anxiety/depression. Authors speculate that the lack of a link between mental health and obesity among Iranian adolescents might be due to a positive attitude toward fatness of adolescents among families and peers. The study has several strengths as it uses a nationally representative sample, has a large sample size, includes both genders, has a wide age range of participants, measures both anxiety 1Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health (CRECH), School of Public Health, University of Michigan, USA, 2Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA