Study of relationship between obesity and executive functions among high school students in Bushehr, Iran

BACKGROUND Obesity is one of the most challenging problems of public health in the present century and can have some serious impacts on cognitive abilities in children and adolescents. This study has tried to investigate the relationship between obesity and executive functioning, particularly in planning- organizing and problem solving among a group of adolescents. METHODS Some 120 male high school students in the 15 to 18 year age range were included. BMI and executive functions were measured with validetes tools and tests in cases. RESULTS There is a significant difference between the executive functions such as planning-organizing and problem solving in obese, overweight and normal students. CONCLUSIONS According to our results it seems the obese adolescents have poorer executive functions than normal weight peers. This is important for families and school staff to design and follow some therapeutic plans for weight reduction in adolescents in order to help them improve their skills in some functions such as planning-organizing and problem solving.