Adolescents and Body Image: A Cross Sectional Study

Objectives: To assess proportion of adolescents perceiving their body image as normal and to study association between body shape, self-esteem and body mass index; each with body image perception. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among pre university college (PUC) students of Udupi taluk. A total of 550 students in the age group of 15–19y were randomly selected from 11 PUC’s: four were taken from government and unaided strata respectively and three from aided. The PUC’s were selected based on proportional allocation from a total of 48 PUC’s. From each PUC a class was randomly chosen as a cluster; all students in the class were included. Body shape questionnaire and Rosenberg self-esteem scale were used to assess body shape concerns and self-esteem respectively. Height and weight was measured and body mass index was calculated. SPSS version 15 has been used for analysis. Results were tabulated using frequency distribution and proportions. Multinomial logistic regression was done. Results: About 38 % of the respondents perceived their body image as normal. Body shape [OR = 0.48,95 % CI: 0.305, 0.76], self-esteem [OR = 6.12,95 % CI: 2.76, 13.9] and body mass index [OR = 4.65,95 % CI: 2.13,10.12] were found to be independently associated with body image perception. Conclusions: Educational institutes are a major component of adolescent’s lives; the identified factors for body image perception should be taken into consideration and appropriate educational efforts to be incorporated into the routine curriculum.