Fat teen Smoking More Risky Start Early

Adolescents who are overweight or obese is usually associated with certain health risks. But it is also at risk of overweight adolescents start smoking earlier.

The first study entitled 'Risk-Taking Behaviors of Adolescents with Extreme Obesity: Normative or Not?' And published in the journal Pediatrics found obese adolescents are engaging in risky and dangerous behaviors, including smoking.

In the present study found that severely obese adolescents had started experimenting with cigarettes before he reached 13 years. This condition is more common in boys.

Megan Benoit Ratcliff and colleagues studied high-risk behaviors of adolescent high school students who have a BMI value higher than normal rates adjusted for age and gender.


Oebsitas adolescents tend to be socially isolated compared with their peers who have normal weight. Quite often these conditions lead to the teenagers to do risk behaviors including smoking as a form of escape.


This of course is quite alarming because adolescents who are obese are at greater risk of developing chronic health problems, if aggravated by cigarette smoking, the risk will be even greater.


S Hossein Fatemi and psychiatrist Paula Clayton J in the book 'The medical basis of psychiatry' said the socio-cultural factors also play a powerful role in shaping the journey of adolescence.


"Teenagers are very obese would be influenced by social, cultural and environmental stress, it is this possibility that makes them more vulnerable," said they, as quoted by Medindia .


It required the role of various parties, including family and friends at his school in helping to avoid the social and cultural discrimination in children who have excess weight, thus reducing the vulnerability of risk behaviors.