Do Obese Children Exhibit Distinguishable Behaviours from Normal Weight Children?-Based on Literature Review

Baek, Seolhyang

Abstract

Since obesity has been a crucial issue regarding children's health in Korea, numerous studies have been conducted. However, it is difficult to locate studies that can help researchers and/or medical professionals who want to study behavioral differences between obese and normal weight (non-obese) children. The collected literature about obese childrens behaviors were accumulated by performing 'key word' searches from several web engines: 'obesity' 'children obesity' 'behavior' 'habit' 'eating behavior or habit' 'exercise' 'physical activity' and 'daily behavior'. The information was extracted and the behaviors were reviewed utilizing 30 papers that revealed any differences from normal weight children with at least p .05 level of significance. According to those studies, the obese children tended to skip meals more often as a method of losing weight. They also have an increased appetite, eat larger portions and rarely leave food on their plates. The obese children prefer to eat high fat, high calorie foods and eat faster than their normal weight counterparts. Also, the children usually eat alone and eat at irregular meal times. Beside the behaviors related to the standard three meals a day, obese children have high preferences for snacking. The children reported that with pocket money they usually eat certain types of snacks without parent approval. The children stated that they exercise more on a regular basis. However, when asked about their participation they were not likely to engage actively. Meanwhile, they tend to spend free time doing sedentary activities such as watching TV or playing on the computer. Since these studies used self -reported questionnaires with a small sample, size there may be difficulty in forming a basis about obese children's behaviors. Nevertheless, these findings are in accordance with other studies conducted in local as well as western countries. In conclusion, obese children have different daily behaviors or routines from normal weight children. It is recommended that altering these behavioral patterns to match those of normal weight children should be encouraged.