Background: During adolescence teenagers undergo dynamic physical and mental changes which are accompanied by an increasing interest in changes to their external appearance. Often teens are concerned about such changes, leading to attempts at managing body mass reduction. Adolescent slimming more commonly arises due to a subjective appraisal of body mass rather than using any objective BMI indicators.
Objective: To evaluate nutritional status of 13 year old boys and girls living in Szczecin, Poland and to analyse the methods used for achieving body mass reduction.
Materials and methods: Subjects were 1,342 adolescents consisting of 679 girls and 663 boys. Nutritional assessment was performed by anthropometric measurements; calculated BMI (Body Mass Index) and WC (Waist Circumference index). A questionnaire was also used to determine how the subjects lost body mass, their satisfaction levels, mood changes and physical activity.
Results: Only 73% subjects had an adequate/normal nutritional status. It was found that half of those declaring that they had used various means of losing body mass (13.04%), of whom the majority were girls, had normal BMI indicators. The most frequently used method of losing body mass were; reducing foodstuff portions and dishes, abstaining from dinner, 1-3 starvation days, increasing physical activity, reducing sweets consumption, abstaining altogether from sweets and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption. Slimming diets were undertaken by 13.1% subjects, consisting mainly of 1000-1300 kcal diets, vegetarian diets or ones recommended by a physician.
Conclusions: Adolescents living in Szczecin showed similar rates of adopting slimming diets for reducing body mass when compared to other regions of Poland and the rest of Europe. The methods used for this purpose were mainly either anti- or pro-healthy nutritional behaviour, but less often using physical activity or through slimming diets. It thus appears that monitoring nutritional status in adolescents, as well as providing education in pro-healthy nutrition, is necessary.