Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Being overweight tied to suicidal thoughts

A new study suggests that seeing oneself as overweight or obese may be an important predictor of suicidal thoughts, especially in young girls.

Study's lead author, Dong-Chul Seo, Ph.D., associate professor at the School of Public Health-Bloomington at Indiana University said that understanding the link between body image and suicide is critical.
"The study's findings clearly indicate that overweight perception is an independent predictor for suicidal ideation, the same as depression," the researcher said.

Seo and his colleagues analyzed the responses of 6,504 middle school and high school students surveyed from 134 schools in 50 states.

Participants were asked if they had seriously thought about committing suicide during the past 12 months and how they perceived their body weight.

No comments:

Post a Comment