Dieting Advice: What’s Your Waiting Room Saying?

As many as 12% of teenage girls practice unhealthy weight-control behavior. Investigators in Minnesota examined whether reading magazine articles about dieting and weight loss predicted weight-control behavior in adolescents (grades, 7–12).

Investigators surveyed 4746 adolescents in a longitudinal study (1998–1999) of eating behaviors and weight concerns and then reevaluated 2516 adolescents (1386 females) from the original group 5 years later. At both time points, BMI measurements, weight-control behaviors, body satisfaction, and the frequency of reading articles about dieting and weight loss were assessed. In adjusted analyses, girls who reported at baseline that they hardly ever, sometimes, or often read magazine articles about diet and w…