Who wants a slimmer body? The relationship between body weight status, education level and body shape dissatisfaction among young adults in Hong Kong

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Yee Tak Derek Cheung¹  Sai Yin Ho²  Tai Hing Lam²  Antoinette Marie Lee³  Paul Siu Fai Yip⁴  Susan Yun Sun Fan⁵  Edmund Tsze Shing Li⁶ 

[1] Centre for Health Policy, Programs and Economics, School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia;Department of Community Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, PR China;Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, PR China;Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, PR China;Family Planning Association of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, PR China;School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Hong Kong SAR, PR China;

关键词: Weight Status;    Body Shape;    Body Dissatisfaction;    Lower Education Level;    Body Satisfaction;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-11-835

 received in 2011-02-17, accepted in 2011-10-31,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundBody shape dissatisfaction has been thought to have an indispensable impact on weight control behaviors. We investigated the prevalence of body shape dissatisfaction (BSD) and explored its association with weight status, education level and other determinants among young adults in Hong Kong.MethodsInformation on anthropometry, BSD, and socio-demographics was collected from a random sample of 1205 young adults (611 men and 594 women) aged 18-27 in a community-based household survey. BSD was defined as a discrepancy between current and ideal body shape based on a figure rating scale. Cross-tabulations, homogeneity tests and logistic regression models were applied.ResultsThe percentages of underweight men and women were 16.5% and 34.9% respectively, and the corresponding percentages of being overweight or obese were 26.7% and 13.2% for men and women respectively. Three-quarters of young adults had BSD. Among women, 30.9% of those underweight and 75.5% of those with normal weight desired a slimmer body shape. Overweight men and underweight women with lower education level were more likely to have a mismatch between weight status and BSD than those with higher education level. After controlling for other determinants, underweight women were found to have a higher likelihood to maintain their current body shapes than other women. Men were found to be less likely to have a mismatch between weight status and BSD than women.ConclusionsOverweight and obesity in men and underweight in women were prevalent among Hong Kong young adults. Inappropriate body shape desire might predispose individuals to unhealthy weight loss or gain behaviors. Careful consideration of actual weight status in body shape desire is needed in health promotion and education, especially for underweight and normal weight women and those with a low education level.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Cheung et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.