The Relationship Between Body Mass Index Emotional Behavioral Problems and Prosocial Behaviours in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Objective: It is important to investigate the body mass indexes of children and adolescents who applied to child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinics and their possible relationship with prosocial characteristics, emotional and behavioral problems, to better understand the negative effects of obesity, which is a public health problem, and to offer suggestions for its solution. The aim of our study is to examine the relationship between BMI z-score, prosocial skills, and emotional behavior problems of children and adolescents who applied to the child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinic. Method: Our study included 130 pediatric and adolescent patients who applied to the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry outpatient clinic of Bursa Uludağ University Medical Faculty Hospital between June 2021 and September 2021. The study procedure was also verbally explained to all participants who gave written informed consent. The permission of the study was obtained from Uludağ University Non-Interventional Clinical Research Ethics Committee. The diagnosis of the patients was made using the Turkish form of the DSM-5 semi-structured interview of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Now and Lifetime Version (CDS-PL). Emotional difficulties and prosocial characteristics of individuals were evaluated with the Strengths-Difficulties Questionnaire-Parent scale. The BMI of the patients will be measured by the same nurse by measuring their height and weight. Results: The average age of the children and adolescents participating in the study is 11.9+-3.74 years. Considering the genders, 53.4% of the participants (n:63) were female. 5.9% (n=7) of the study participants were obese, 12.7% (n=15) were overweight, 12.7% (n=42) normal weight, 37.3% (n=44) underweight, 8.5% (n=10) extremely thin. There was no difference between the genders in terms of obesity (p=0.72). Conclusion: Our study is important as it is a study that examines the relationship between prosocial characteristics and body mass index, emotional-behavioral problems and diseases of adolescents who applied during the pandemic period. Recognition of possible problems caused by obesity in children and adolescents is important in terms of predicting mental problems that may accompany and making early intervention. In addition, recognizing and meeting appropriate needs is important in terms of preventive mental health. In this sense, the increase in studies defining and investigating risk factors has an important place in terms of public health.