The prevalence of body dissatisfaction and its association with unhealthy nutritional status in adolescents - DOI: 10.4025/reveducfis.v20i1.3496

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate associations between body dissatisfaction and unhealthy nutritional status. The study enrolled 180 female adolescents (10-17 years). Anthropometric variables (body mass, height, skin folds) and body image self-perception were determined. Adolescents were defined as having unhealthy nutritional status if their BMI was <18.5 or ≥ 25.0 kg/m² or if their body fat percentage (%F) was ≤14.9 or ≥25%. It was observed that 85% of the adolescents were body dissatisfied. It was also observed that 82.2% of the adolescents were classified as having healthy nutritional status according to their BMI, whereas, when classified according to %F, just 46.1% were within healthy limits (p<0.05). When the analysis was performed in a non-dichotomous manner, it was found that %F defined a greater proportion of adolescents as overweight (p<0.05). Adolescents whose BMI and %F were outside healthy limits had 3.38 and 3.76 times greater chances of body dissatisfaction, respectively, than those with healthy nutritional status. Unhealthy nutritional status is a strong indicator of body dissatisfaction in female adolescents.