PROVIDENCE, R.I., Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Overweight young people are more likely to have overweight best friends and romantic partners, a U.S. researcher says.
Lead author Tricia Leahey of The Miriam Hospital's Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center in Providence, R.I., says overweight youth also have more overweight casual friends and family members versus normal-weight peers.
The study published in the journal Obesity finds overweight and obese young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 are less likely to participate in behavioral weight-loss interventions.
"Our data suggests that obesity 'clusters' in this population. But interestingly, social norms for obesity did not differ between the two groups and did not account for the clustering," Leahey says in a statement. "Both groups reported similarly low levels of social acceptability for being overweight, eating unhealthy foods and being inactive."
Leahey and colleagues analyzed questionnaires completed by 288 young adults between the ages of 18-25 -- of whom 151 were of normal weight and 137 were considered overweight or obese. The majority of participants were female and Caucasian.
