HHS HealthBeat (September 3, 2012)

Teens’ friends’ weights

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Teens tend to wear the same clothes and, researchers say, have body sizes like their friends. At Loyola University Chicago, David Shoham saw signs of that in data on almost 1,800 students from two high schools.

Students tended to gain weight if their friends were heavier, and lose weight or gain more slowly if their friends were leaner.

Shoham says the key is in the difference between friends, not just if friends are themselves fat or lean.

“Students not only chose friends who were similar to themselves, including similar on body size. Friends also became more similar to their friends over time.”

The study in the journal PLoS-ONE was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

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HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: September 4, 2012