Imagem corporal, estado nutricional e sua associação com autoestima corporal em adolescentes

Abstract

In adolescence, biopsychosocial and cultural factors contribute to the occurrence of changes in perception and satisfaction with body image and inappropriate nutritional conditions, and may influence the body esteem of adolescents. The aim of this study is to assess the association between self-perception of body image and nutritional status with body esteem in adolescents, according to sex and age groups. A cross-sectional study conducted with 305 teenage students at a public school in Rio de Janeiro, with 174 males and 131 females, aged between 10 and 18 years was developed. The dependent variable was body esteem, and as independent variable, body image and nutritional status. For the evaluation of body esteem in the domains "appearance", "weight", "attribution" and total body esteem, we used the Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESSA); and for self-perceived image we used the Contour Drawing Rating Scale, both validated for Brazilian adolescents. The body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were used to evaluate nutritional status and as continuous variables. The collection was made in 2009 through the application of a self-administered questionnaire to adolescents and assessment of their anthropometric measurements (weight, height and waist circumference) by trained professionals, according to pre-established norms. We applied the chi-square test (χ²) to compare frequencies and Student t test and ANOVA for comparison of measures (averages and standard deviations) found. We performed a simple linear regression to determine the degree of association between variables. It was considered a significance level of p <0.05 for all tests. All analyses were stratified by sex and age groups. In both sexes and age groups, the higher the silhouettes (current figure) of adolescents, the lower were the scores of body esteem, and these results are more significant in female adolescents aged 14-18 years. BMI and WC were mainly associated with body esteem in the field "weight", while the WC is stronger in male adolescents and BMI in adolescent females from 10 to 13 years. In conclusion, low body self-esteem was associated with body image and with indicators of nutritional status (BMI and WC) in adolescents of both sexes. These findings suggest the importance of assessing body esteem of adolescents, providing health professionals a wider knowledge about the feelings of young people on body value and appearance, thus fostering the development of actions designed to improve self- esteem and help treating, for example, their weight control