Regresar

An online visual scale to measure body image distortion among university students

Abstract:

Introduction: Body image distortion (BID) is a risk factor, which can lead to eating disorders problems. The purpose of this study was to measure body image distortion using an online visual scale which included 9 figures representing different body sizes. Methods: Participants (N = 459) ranged in age from 18 to 30 and were university students from Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain). Body image distortion was measured comparing the perceived body mass index (PBMI) corresponding to the figure chosen as "current" body size from an online visual scale and the body mass index (BMI) calculated from self-reported height and weight. Results: Findings suggested that approximately half of the whole sample reported body image distortion, being more prevalent in women than in men (73.8% vs. 37.4%). Participants tended to overestimate their body size, mostly women (61.5% vs. 15.6%), whereas underestimation was overrepresented by men (10.5% vs. 1.0%). Conclusions: Similar results that other studies that used questionnaires in paper were found.