Papers of the Week

Underweight or overweight in adolescence is linked to several adverse health outcomes. Less evidence exists about the association between weight status and school-related psychosocial characteristics in high income countries. We sought to investigate the relationship between weight status and psychosomatic and school-related complaints with a focus on gender differences. The study is a cohort of 18,462 adolescents (12-19 years; 51% girls) conducted in Sweden. The associations between weight status and psychosomatic and school-related complaints were estimated by binary logistic regression adjusted for several potential confounders. After correction for multiple testing, being underweight or overweight/obese was adversely associated with several psychosomatic and school-related complaints with significant differences between boys and girls. Specifically, underweight boys had higher odds to have psychosomatic complaints than normal-weight boys, while no such associations were observed among underweight girls. Overweight/obese (vs. normal-weight) boys had higher odds to complain about headache, pain in the back/hips, and feeling low. Overweight/obese (vs. normal-weight) girls were more likely to complain about feeling low, anxious/worried and having difficulty in falling asleep (P ≤ 0.01). In relation to school-related complaints (e.g., being bullied at school and academic failure), greater associations were observed for overweight/obese girls and boys than for underweight adolescents compared with normal-weight peers.