Perceived and ideal body image in young women in South Western Saudi Arabia

• Objectives. The aim of this study was to investigate perceived and ideal body image (BI) and associated factors among female university students in Saudi Arabia. Methods. This cross-sectional study included 663 university female students. Anthropometric measurements including weight, height, BMI, and BI perception (the 9-figure silhouette) were obtained. Descriptive and logistic regression analysis were conducted. Results. An agreement between actual, perceived, and ideal BI was found in 23% of the participants. Behavioral (activity levels), social (presence of obese parents and fathers’ level of education), and economic factors (households’ monthly income, number of cars in the household, and kind of residence) were positively and significantly associated with the desire to be thinner. Similarly, socioeconomic associations (number of sisters and number of cars in the household) correlated positively and significantly with the desire to be heavier. Conclusions. The whole family should rather be considered in interventions related to appearance concerns and BI discrepancies. Furthermore, campaigns targeting improvement of adolescents’ physical self-image should be a major priority of the public health sector.

Ämnesord

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskaper (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskaper -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

Nyckelord

adolescents

teenagers

physical self-image

body image

ideal body

weight control

diet

dissatisfaction

behaviors

objectification

perception

female

university students

young adult

Saudi Arabia

family characteristics

socioeconomic factors

Medicin/Teknik

Medicine/Technology

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)