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Memorias del Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud
On-line version ISSN 1812-9528
Abstract
TORALES, Judith M. et al. Perception of body image as conditioning factor of body mass index in medical residents at Clinical Hospital. Mem. Inst. Investig. Cienc. Salud [online]. 2018, vol.16, n.2, pp.79-83. ISSN 1812-9528. https://doi.org/10.18004/mem.iics/1812-9528/2018.016(02)79-083.
The perception of their own body image that a person has is a conditioning factor of the body weight. We aimed to know the perception of body image assessing the body mass index (BMI) in 107 medical residents of the Clinical Hospital. We utilized a descriptive observational design to evaluate multiple variables like gender, age, abdominal diameter, weight, height, body mass index, and perception of body weight. The abdominal diameter was of high risk in 37% of males and 16% in females, and of very high risk in 13% of males and in 29% of females (p=0,009). The medium BMI was 25,7±4,6. There was a normal BMI in 45% of the subjects and overweight in 43%. There were more female with normal weight than male (63% vs 28%), and there were more overweight male than female (61% vs 28%) (p=0,0009). Considering the perception of body weight, 23% perceive themselves to be obese, 47% with overweight, and 28% with normal body weight. Comparing this perception with real BMI, we observed that 43% of the subjects do not have a real perception according to the BMI. The agreement between real BMI and the image perception is 63%. Almost half of the medical residents studied do not have a real body weight perception according to BMI. The perception of obesity is greater in women than in men according to the real BMI. There is a necessity of larger studies including the total population of the hospital to create educational measures for timely intervention in the health of hospital personal.
Keywords : Body image perception; Medical residents; Body mass index.