Abstract
BackgroundLiving in a world greatly controlled by mass media makes it impossible to escape its pervading influence. As media in Pakistan has been free in the true sense of the word for only a few years, its impact on individuals is yet to be assessed. Our study aims to be the first to look at the effect media has on the body image of university students in a conservative, developing country like Pakistan. Also, we introduced the novel concept of body image dissatisfaction as being both negative and positive.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among 7 private universities over a period of two weeks in the city of Karachi, Pakistan's largest and most populous city. Convenience sampling was used to select both male and female undergraduate students aged between 18 and 25 and a sample size of 783 was calculated.ResultsOf the 784 final respondents, 376 (48%) were males and 408 (52%) females. The mean age of males was 20.77 (+/- 1.85) years and females was 20.38 (+/- 1.63) years. Out of these, 358 (45.6%) respondents had a positive BID (body image dissatisfaction) score while 426 (54.4%) had a negative BID score. Of the respondents who had positive BID scores, 93 (24.7%) were male and 265 (65.0%) were female. Of the respondents with a negative BID score, 283 (75.3%) were male and 143 (35.0%) were female. The results for BID vs. media exposure were similar in both high and low peer pressure groups. Low media exposure meant positive BID scores and vice versa in both groups (p < 0.0001) showing a statistically significant association between high media exposure and negative body image dissatisfaction. Finally, we looked at the association between gender and image dissatisfaction. Again a statistically significant association was found between positive body image dissatisfaction and female gender and negative body image dissatisfaction and male gender (p < 0.0001).ConclusionsOur study confirmed the tendency of the media to have an overall negative effect on individuals' body image. A striking feature of our study, however, was the finding that negative body image dissatisfaction was found to be more prevalent in males as compared to females. Likewise, positive BID scores were more prevalent amongst females.
Highlights
Living in a world greatly controlled by mass media makes it impossible to escape its pervading influence
Body image may be defined in simple terms as the way a person perceives or thinks about his body and how it appears to others [1]
It is important to note that perceived weight does not always reflect actual weight status based on body mass index (BMI)
Summary
Living in a world greatly controlled by mass media makes it impossible to escape its pervading influence. Several studies have concluded that females have a higher tendency to adjudge themselves as not conforming to weight ideals as compared to men. Studies have shown that despite low rates of obesity, many university students, especially women, perceive themselves as overweight [8,11,12,13,14]. This is of concern, because inappropriate weight perceptions can lead to unhealthy behaviours including eating disorders [8,15,16,17,18]. Several studies investigating the effect of exposure to the muscular male body ideal on bodyfocused self-perception among males have shown it to be associated with body dissatisfaction and muscularity dissatisfaction, especially in men with pre-existing muscularity concerns [19,20]
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