Bullying victimization associated with obesity-promoting behaviors
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Children aged 12 to 15 from low- and middle-income countries report more obesogenic behaviors after being a victim of bullying compared with those who are not bullied, according to a study published in Pediatric Obesity.
“The finding that bullying victimization and obesogenic behaviors (anxiety-induced insomnia, fast-food and soft-drink consumption, sedentary behavior) tend to co-exist among adolescents in low- and middle-income countries is alarming given that bullying victimization and these obesogenic behaviors are both associated with a myriad of adverse health outcomes (depression, anxiety disorder, suicidality and lower quality of life) in adolescence and adulthood,” Lee Smith MSc, PhD, director of research at the Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, U.K., and colleagues wrote.
Researchers analyzed cross-sectional data from the global school-based health survey conducted between 2009 and 2017. Data from 54 low- and middle-income countries were included in the study.
Students were considered victims of bullying behaviors — such as name calling, social exclusion or physical abuse by peers — if they reported being bullied within 30 days of the survey. They were then asked questions regarding anxiety-induced insomnia, fast-food consumption, carbonated soft-drink consumption, and amounts of physical activity and sedentary behavior each child engaged in per day. A total of 153,929 students aged 12 to 15 years (mean age, 13.8 years; 49.3% girls) were included in the study.
Among the cohort, 35.9% reported bullying victimization, 7.1% reported sleeplessness due to worry in the past 12 months, 50.5% reported eating at a fast-food restaurant during the past week, and 76.1% reported drinking carbonated soft-drinks every day during the past month. A total of 31.4% of the surveyed students reported no physical activity during the past 7 days, and 26.4% said they engaged in 3 or more hours of sedentary behavior outside of school or homework on a typical day.
Children who reported bullying victimization had higher odds of experiencing anxiety-induced sleep problems (OR = 2.65; 95% CI, 2.43-2.88), eating fast foods (OR = 1.36; 95% CI, 1.27-1.44), drinking carbonated beverages (OR = 1.14; 95% CI, 1.08-1.21) and engaging in sedentary behavior (OR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.25-1.43) vs. children who reported no bullying victimization. Engaging in no physical activity was the only behavior with lower odds for children who reported bullying victimization (OR = 0.84; 95% CI, 0.79-0.89).
“The finding that bullying victimization was inversely associated with lower levels of physical activity in our study should be noted,” researchers wrote. “This contrasts with the results from previous studies carried out in high-income countries, which have shown that bullying victimization is positively associated with lower levels of physical activity. Although the reasons for the discrepant results between our study and previous studies from high-income countries can only be speculated, it is possible that physical activity increases the chances of meeting offenders by being out of home more often in our study setting. The difference may thus be related to where physical activity and bullying occur.”
Researchers suggested the risk for weight gain and obesity in children could be lowered if schools put an emphasis on reducing bullying.
“Future studies with the aim of understanding the adverse consequence of these obesogenic behaviors among victims of bullying in adolescence should be conducted,” researchers wrote. “Interventions that address bullying in school may also have positive effects in terms of reducing overweight or obesity.”
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