The association between body weight dissatisfaction and unhealthy eating behaviors and/or lack of physical activity in adolescents: a systematic review

A systematic review examined the association between body weight dissatisfaction with unhealthy eating behaviors and lack of physical activity in adolescents, since it represents an alert to adolescent’s health and well-being. Six electronic databases and gray literature were systematically searched from January 1980 to December 2018. A total of 11 articles met the inclusion criteria. Included studies assessed body weight dissatisfaction using different dimensions/components: satisfaction component of the attitudinal dimension was assessed in five studies, behavior component of the attitudinal dimension was assessed in two studies, perceptual dimension was assessed in two studies, and two studies were unclear about dimension. Behaviors: two assessed only unhealthy eating behaviors, six assessed lack of physical activity, and three assessed both behaviors. Only three studies found an association between body weight dissatisfaction with unhealthy eating behaviors, three with lack of physical activity, and one did not perform a statistical test for an association between body weight dissatisfaction with unhealthy eating behaviors and lack of physical activity. Few studies have reported an association between body weight dissatisfaction with one of these unhealthy behaviors. There was substantial heterogeneity related to unit of measures, both for body weight dissatisfaction and for behaviors studied.