Motivation and perceived competence for healthy eating and exercise among overweight/obese adolescents in comparison to normal weight adolescents

Table 1 Characteristics of study participants

	Total cohort	Normal weight (BMI < 85%)	Overweight/Obese (BMI ≥ 85%)
Number of subjects, n	100	40	60
Age, years	15.9 ± 1.9	16.0 ± 1.8	15.8 ± 1.9
Gender, Male/Female	46 M/54F	20 M/20F	26 M/34F
Ethnicity, N (%)	Latino/Hispanic, 82 (82%)	Latino/Hispanic, 32 (80%)	Latino/Hispanic, 50 (83.3%)
	Black/African American, 4 (4%)	Black/African American, 2 (5%)	Black/African American, 2 (3.3%)
	Non-Hispanic White, 8 (8%)	Non-Hispanic White, 3 (7.5%)	Non-Hispanic White, 5 (8.3%)
	Asian, 3 (3%)	Asian, 2 (5%)	Asian, 1 (1.7%)
	Other, 3 (3%)	Other, 1 (2.5%)	Other, 2 (3.3%)
Grade Level in School	10.1 ± 1.8	10.2 ± 1.9	10.1 ± 1.8
Mother’s highest education level	9.5 ± 4.1	9.2 ± 4.6	9.7 ± 3.8
Father’s highest education level	9.7 ± 4.0	10.7 ± 4.2	9.1 ± 3.8*
Annual family Income ($) (n = 85)	20,800 (15,540-28,500)	25,000 (16,200-43,750)	18,000 (15,000-23,000)*
BMI, kg/m2	27.3 ± 7.8	20.2 ± 2.9	32.0 ± 6.5*
BMI z-score	1.1 ± 1.3	−0.26 ± 1.1	1.94 ± 0.5*
Blood Pressure Systolic, mmHg	119 ± 11.3	111 ± 10.3	124 ± 8.8*
Blood Pressure Diastolic, mmHg	66 ± 7.7	63 ± 7.4	67 ± 7.4*

Legend: N = 100 in the total cohort. The subjects were included in the Normal weight category if the body mass index (BMI) was less than 85% for age and gender, or in the Overweight/Obese category if the BMI were greater than or equal to the 85% for age and gender. The data are expressed as the means ± standard deviation (SD) or median (25-75% interquartile range)
*p < 0.05 for comparisons between normal weight subjects and overweight/obese subjects

ISSN: 2052-9538