Background: Overweight/obesity has shown an increasing trend in many countries. Unhealthy eating behaviors have frequently been related to overweight/obesity.
Objective: This study aimed to determine the association of overweight/obesity and eating behaviors with behavioral problems in school-age children.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study of school-age children aged 7-12 years was conducted. Body mass index for age z-score was measured and participants were classified into 3 groups including normal weight, overweight and obesity. Caregivers provided information regarding eating behaviors and completed the child behavior checklist.
Results: There were 430 participants included for analysis. The mean age of the study sample was 10.56 (1.44) years of which 51.39% were male. Children with overweight and obesity were 21.40 and 20.47%, respectively. Unhealthy eating behaviors, including skipping breakfast and media use during meals were more common in the obesity group than the normal weight group without statistical significance. Although, there was minimal correlation between sweetened beverage intake and the total behavioral scores, the mean total behavioral problems scores were not different among the three groups. However, some eating behaviors including sweetened beverage intake, dessert intake and frequent eating outside were found to be associated with the total behavioral problem scores from the multiple linear regression analysis (p = 0.001, 0.02 and 0.008, respectively).
Conclusion: Although the association between overweight/obesity and behavioral problems was not found in this study, some unhealthy eating behaviors were found to be related to behavioral problems. Promoting healthy eating behaviors may be a primary step to prevent behavioral problems and obesity.
