Study reveals why most teens fail to eat healthy—and what it costs

<p>This thesis aims to deepen the understanding of self-reported food intake and its associations with overweight/obesity and psychosomatic symptoms, as well as adolescents’ thoughts on lifestyle habits, health and wellbeing.</p><p>A repeated cross-sectional design was used on data from the MyHealth database (Papers I–III). The data, involving over 44,000 adolescents aged 10, 13/14 and 16 years, had been collected in schools in Jönköping County between 2009/2010 and 2015/2016. Inductive qualitative analyses of interviews with 28 adolescents aged 16 in 2022/2023 were performed (Paper IV).</p><p>The results show that few adolescents, especially in late adolescence, maintain a healthy diet. However, except for fruit intake, there was a trend towards improved food intake over time. Achieving the recommended fruit intake was particularly challenging. Most healthy food choices were linked. Moreover, healthy food intake was associated with a low psychosomatic burden among 16-year-olds. Some food choices were associated with overweight/obesity. Adolescents aimed to balance their lifestyle habits and adapt them to their personal situation to achieve health and wellbeing. In this, they sought support from trusted sources.</p><p>Strategies are needed to promote healthy dietary habits, especially in late adolescence. Both the type of food and the total amount of food consumed should be considered. Further studies are needed to confirm whether improved dietary habits can reduce psychosomatic symptoms and enhance mental health. When supporting adolescents in developing healthy lifestyle habits it is important to consider their personal life situation and developmental phase, acknowledge their need for relatedness and respect their autonomy.</p>