Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess the impact of inherent aspects of body image, eating behavior and perceived health competence on quality of life of university students. Participants completed the instruments Body Shape Questionnaire (reduced version, BSQ-8B), Male Body Dissatisfaction Scale (reduced version, MBDS-R), Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (reduced version, TFEQ-18), Perceived Health Competence Scale (bifactorial version, PHCS-B), World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire-Short Form (WHOQoL-bref) and a questionnaire for characterization of sample. Psychometric properties of instruments were previously evaluated by confirmatory factor analysis. A hypothetical model for each sex was developed and tested. In both model surveys the aspects of the body image (BSQ-8B: body shape concern; MBDS-R: musculature and general body appearance), of eating behavior (TFEQ-18: cognitive restriction, emotional eating, and uncontrolled eating) and of the perceived health competence (PHCS-B: expectations of achieving the desired health results and competence in health behaviors) were used as direct predictors on quality of life (WHOQoL-bref). The variables age, medication use for body change, food supplement use for body change, and body mass index (BMI) were inserted in the aspects of the body image. The variables course shift, initial expectation regarding the course, self-reported performance in the course, concomitant work activities to studies, and economic class were inserted into the quality of life. The model surveys were evaluated using structural equation modeling. A level of significance of 5% was used. A total of 2,198 university students (female = 63.5%), including 1,151 Brazilians and 1,047 Portuguese, participated of study (locally representative samples). The average age of women was 20.8 ± 2.4 years and of men was 21.3 ± 3.3 years. The psychometric properties of the instruments were adequate, except for the PHCS, which was adjusted for each sex. The models presented variance explained of 54% and 49% for women and men, respectively. In both sexes, the students’ perceived health competence and academic variables contributed significantly to their quality of life, and age, BMI, and medication and supplement use were significant factors relating to how a student views his or her body image. Women's quality of life was associated with body shape concern and emotional eating aspects. Men's quality of life was associated with general body appearance and cognitive restriction aspects. These results can be used to create and implement educational programs to improve quality of life of university students.
Highlights
The quality of life of individuals is a topic of concern of specialists from several fields; there is no consensus in the literature about what this concept means, which may be a result of its complexity and multidimensionality
It was observed that item 11 of the WHOQoLbref presented a high modification index (LM = 718.31), indicating a high correlation with the aspect "body shape concern (BSQ-8B)”, and in this way, we opted for exclusion of this item
Women who are less concerned with body shape, who do less emotional eating, perceive themselves competent in their behaviors to manage their own health, study during the day, have better expectations, perform well, who do not think about giving up on the course they attend, and who do not consume medications due the pressure of their studies have a better quality of life
Summary
The quality of life of individuals is a topic of concern of specialists from several fields; there is no consensus in the literature about what this concept means, which may be a result of its complexity and multidimensionality. Some research has used the term based on the meaning of it proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) that sees it as the individual’s perceptions about his or her goals, expectations, patterns and concerns, and his or her position in life in the context of culture and systems of values in which they live [1]. The quality of life group of the WHO (WHOQOL) developed the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQoL) with the collaboration of researchers from several countries. This instrument was created to evaluate the main domains related to the quality of life of people in different cultures. To aid in broad epidemiological studies, a shorter version (WHOQoL-bref) was proposed by the WHOQOL group [1], and this has been commonly used by researchers
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