Sarintohe, Eveline

The prevalence of obese and overweight individuals has continued to increase over the past years, particularly in developing countries, such as Indonesia. Rapid urbanization and a transformation of traditional food systems towards modern supply chains are supposed to explain rates of obesity in Indonesia. In contrast to Western countries, obesity is positively related with socio-economic position (SEP), meaning that being overweight is more prevalent among adults and adolescents with higher SEP. Not so many studies about obesity among adolescents in Indonesia and most studies about health prevention and intervention were developed in Western countries. In this project we tried to fill the gap with aim to explore predictors of obesity and energy dense food intake among adolescents. With the exploration, we tried to make a model that will be suitable for public health prevention and intervention in Indonesia.

This prospective cohort study on adolescents in Indonesia included three waves of data collection. In this study, we explore demographic factors (i.e., sex, school area, ethnicity), psychological factors (i.e., food responsiveness, emotional overeating) that related to obesity, cross-sectionally and longitudinally. We try to understand energy dense food intake intention with expanding Theory of Planned Behavior. Understanding who is more or less vulnerable to be obese or overweight is critical to further target public health interventions

Prof. Jacqueline Vink, dr. Junilla Larsen, dr. William Burk