Assessment of the Relationship between Social Support and Nutritional Behaviors in Overweight and Obese Female Students in Middle Schools of Shahinshahr, Iran

The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents has increased to a considerable level all over the world. Social support has been recognized as one the most important psychological factors which can affect nutritional behaviors of adolescents. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the relationship between social support and nutritional behaviors in overweight and obese adolescents of Shahinshahr, Iran.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 172 overweight and obese female students who studied in the middle schools of Shahinshahr. After random sampling and assessment of anthropometric indicators, the social support and meal frequency questionnaire was completed by the students. In addition, students were asked to provide a 24-hour food recall.
Findings: The mean age and BMI of the students were 13.4 ± 0.6 years and 28.2 ± 3.6 kg/m2, respectively. BMI had a reverse significant relationship with eating breakfast, and morning and afternoon snacks (P Social support was an efficient predictor of eating breakfast in obese students. It seems that to better understand the relationship between social support and nutritional behaviors more studies must be conducted in the future.