According to the results published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the probability that the adolescents perceived themselves as overweight or obese declined significantly (probability ratio 0.71, 95% CI 0.62-0.82).

Researchers used data from adolescents aged 12-16 years who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 1988-1994 (early, n=1,720) or 2007-2012 (recent, n=2,518). Respondents were categorized as obese if they had a sex and age-specific BMI at or above the 95th percentile and as overweight if they were above the 85th percentile.

Only 21% of boys correctly perceived themselves as overweight in the recent survey, as opposed to 28% of those in the early survey (P<0.05). The number was higher for girls: 36% in the latest survey versus 79% in the first survey (P<0.05). Overall, the percentage of boys that correctly perceived their weight status went down from 80% to 50%; the percentage of girls went from 89% to 73%. The declining tendency of accurately self-perceiving as overweight was most pronounced among whites (PR=0.64 [0.48, 0.85]), and least among blacks (PR=0.76 [0.58, 0.99]).

The authors added that the failure to accurately perceive one's own body weight may be a barrier to losing weight.

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