Autopercepção do peso corporal e transtornos mentais comuns em funcionários de uma universidade no Rio de Janeiro: Estudo Pró-Saúde

Abstract

Gender, race and mental health are important variables to be considered in studies that evaluate the self-perception of body weight. If on the other hand, the actual society comes across with an epidemic growth of the overweight and of the obesity, for another one the body paradigms socially constructed for men and women have become unattachable and most rigorous and, being related not only to the health but also to the personal, professional and affective success. In this way, the selfperception out of the ideal weight can lead to the development of common mental disorders (CMD). Some groups, however, seem to be less vulnerable to such standards as in the case of individuals of the black race. However, few national studies have investigated these questions. The present thesis evaluated the incidence of CMD according to self-perception of body weight between employees of a university in Rio de Janeiro, as well as the agreement between the self-perception of body weight and the Body Mass Index (BMI) according to race in this same population. The first study it evaluated the first wave of cohort of the Pró-Saúde study analyzing through generalized linear models the relative risks of the association between incidence of CMD and self-perception of body weight. The second one evaluated the agreement between self-perception of body weight and BMI according to race. The first article, on the model adjusted for sex it was observed an association between incidence of CMD and having a perception above ideal weight (RR=1,42). In the analysis that evaluated the agreement between BMI and self-perception of body weight, differences related to race were not detected, so the agreement ranged from moderated to high among women and men, respectively. For both sexes, the structure of agreement out of the principal diagonal indicates that high scores of BMI corresponding to above ideal perception. For women, however, the exact agreement was higher to extremes categories of body weight perception and BMI. In Brazil, because social pressures related to obtaining the ideal weight are strongly development within a multiracial context, differences related to race were not detected.