WEDNESDAY, Jan. 10, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Overall, 5.5 percent of adolescents use weight-loss products, with higher use among girls, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published online Jan. 10 in JAMA Network Open.
Natasha Yvonne Hall, Pharm.B., from the School of Health and Social Development at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues examined the global prevalence of nonprescription weight-loss product use in children and adolescents in a meta-analysis of 90 articles with 604,552 unique participants (56 percent of studies from North America).
The researchers found that the reported prevalence of nonprescription weight-loss product use was 5.5 percent in adolescents overall. Prevalence was 2.0, 4.4, 6.2, and 8.9 percent in the past week, past month, past year, and lifetime, respectively, when identifying use of weight-loss products in the general population. Girls had higher use of weight-loss products than boys.
“Prevalence of weight-loss product use was higher in North America compared with Asia and Europe and was higher in Asia compared with Europe,” the authors write. “Given the individual and public health issues associated with adolescent use of nonprescription weight-loss products, interventions are urgently required to prevent and regulate use of weight-loss products in this population.”
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