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Concern over appearance among male teens increased risky behavior
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Adolescent boys concerned about muscularity who use supplements to enhance their physique are more likely to binge drink and use drugs compared with adolescents who do not use supplements, according to recent study findings published in JAMA Pediatrics.
In addition, the use of these unhealthy products to enhance appearance may not be recognized by their health care provider simply because they are boys, according to Alison E. Field, ScD, of Boston Children’s Hospital, and colleagues.
The researchers analyzed 5,527 adolescent boys aged 12 to 18 years to discover whether concerns about physique and eating disorders were related to drug use, obesity, binge drinking or high levels of depressive symptoms. The study began in 1999 and patients were followed through 2011.
Field and colleagues found that during the study period:
- 9.2% of participants reported high concern with muscularity but no bulimic behavior;
- 2.4% reported high concern with muscularity and use of supplements, growth hormones or steroids;
- 2.5% reported high concern with thinness but no bulimic behavior;
- 6.3% reported high concern with thinness and muscularity.
Participants concerned with thinness but not muscularity were more likely to have depressive symptoms (OR=2.72; 95% CI, 1.36-5.44). Participants concerned with both thinness and muscularity were more likely to use drugs (OR=2.13; 95% CI, 1.31-3.46) and those with muscularity concerns who used supplements, growth hormones or steroids were more likely to binge drink frequently (OR=2.06; 95% CI, 1.58-2.69) and use drugs (OR=2.16; 95% CI, 1.49-3.11).
“Muscularity concerns increased with age,” the researchers wrote. “Boys who had high concerns about muscularity and used products to improve their physique were more likely than their peers to start using drugs and binge drinking frequently. In addition, boys with these concerns who were not using potentially unhealthy means to achieve their desired physique were at a slightly lower increased risk of these adverse outcomes. Our results suggest that the failure of most eating disorder assessments to measure concerns with muscularity may result in overlooking a substantial number of males with a potential eating disorder.”
Disclosure: The study was funded in part by the NIH.
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