Teenagers underweight or overweight by 20-40 percent. they use illegal substances more often than adolescents with a healthy weight, according to an Italian study published by the journal PLoS ONE.
Such conclusions were reached by scientists from the Italian Scientific Council for Research in Pisa, who studied over 33 thousand. Italian high school students aged 15-19.
This group collected information on the use of drugs and other illegal substances and calculated for each body mass index (BMI). The adolescents also took a test to assess the risk of eating disorders (such as anorexia and bulimia) and the degree of concern about their weight.
It found that overweight and underweight teens, especially girls, have recently used 20-40 more illegal substances than their normal-weight peers. The risk of eating disorders more often concerned adolescents weighing above the norm.
The analysis also showed that the relationship between abnormal body weight and substance abuse was largely determined by the self-esteem of adolescents, the influence of friends and the level of parental education.
For example, overweight adolescents who admit to using drugs and drugs more recently had more friends who did the same and had serious problems with their parents and at school than their peers who had not recently used illegal substances.
Based on this, researchers estimate that the link between abnormal body weight and drug or drug use is not causal, but likely to be underpinned by the same social and psychological factors.
The authors of the study hope that the results of their research will help to better plan activities that can reduce the number of young people abusing illegal substances, suffering from eating disorders and problems with maintaining a healthy body weight.