Association of Overweight and Obesity with Mental Distress in Iranian Adolescents: The CASPIAN-III Study

BACKGROUND Excess weight may be associated with mental distress and this relationship varies according to the socio-cultural background of different populations. This study aims to assess the relationship of overweight and obesity with some psychological disorders in a nationally representative sample of Iranian adolescents. METHODS This nationwide study was conducted in 2009-2010 among 5570 students, aged 10-18 years, living in 27 provinces in Iran. Data were collected by using the translated and validated questionnaire of the World Health Organization Global School-based Health Survey. RESULTS Data of 5528 students (49.7% girls) were complete for this study. Their mean age was 14.7 (2.4) years. Overall 7.9% of participants were overweight and 8.8% were obese. 58.7% of students had anxiety, without significant association of overweight (odds ratio [OR]: 0.86, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.68-1.09) and obesity (OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 0.88-1.40) with an anxiety. Nearly 62.6% of students reported to have depression, there was no significant relationship between overweight (OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 0.86-1.43) obesity and (OR: 1.01, 95% CI: 0.79-1.29) with the depression. About 49.4% of students had insomnia, without significant association of overweight (OR: 1.17, 95% CI:, 0.91-1.51) and obesity (OR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.71-1.17) with the insomnia. CONCLUSIONS In Iranian adolescents, excess weight did not increase the risk of psychological distress. This finding might be due to the positive attitude of family and peers to fatness in adolescence.