Has the adolescents' weight concern increased over 20 years?

BACKGROUND The aim of this study is to evaluate whether the proportion of 12 to 18-year-old adolescents perceiving themselves to be overweight has increased from the late 1970s to the late 1990s, and to evaluate how self-reported weight is associated with weight concern in the different age groups among girls and boys, and how this association has changed over time. MATERIAL A nationally representative sample of 26,700 girls and 23,346 boys, aged 12-18 years, who responded to the postal survey study Adolescent Health and Lifestyle Survey in 1979-1999. METHODS Self-reported information about weight, height and satisfaction with one's own weight. RESULTS Girls reported more concerns of being overweight than boys. The proportion of those perceiving themselves as being overweight decreased over time both among overweight and among normal weight adolescents. CONCLUSION Even if the adolescent population has gained weight, they are less concerned at being overweight than earlier. It seems that adolescents compare themselves rather to the peers close to them than to ideal models provided by culture at large.