A comparison of demographic and socio-psychological characteristics of obese males according to degree of obesity

Abstract

This study aims to explore the diverse characteristics of obese groups of Korean males in their 20’s to 40’s. A total of 201 males who each had a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 23 or over were recruited through a convenient sampling. Samples were categorized into groups of overweight, slightly obese, and severely obese, and submitted for data analysis. Results are summarized as follows. First, in terms of demographic characteristics, slightly and severely obese males were older than overweight males. There were also group differences in marital status and household income. Second, slightly and severely obese groups demonstrated a higher perception of obesity and a lower perception of health than did the overweight group. Third, there were no group differences in body satisfaction, socio-cultural attitudes toward appearance, and self-esteem. Based on these results, we concluded that overweight, slightly obese, and severely obese groups were distinguishable from each other in terms of their demographic characteristics, whereas the slightly obese group and the severely obese group were not different in terms of perception of obesity, perception of health, weight control behaviors, body satisfaction, body image, socio-cultural attitudes toward appearance, and self-esteem. These findings may reflect that people may not become increasingly sensitive to socio-psychological stimulations as they gain more weight if they have exceeded a certain level of obesity. This observation provides meaningful implications for the differences among obesity groups given the lack of prior research focusing on this issue.