Self-perception of body image in college students of a nutrition course

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the body image of university students in the course of nutrition. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out with 181 students of both genders from the Nutrition Undergraduate of Maranhão, Brazil. The presence and degree of dissatisfaction with body shape were evaluated by Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ 34), another instrument used in this study was Body Figure Silhouettes (BFS). Results: The participants presented mean age of 23.1 (±5.2) years, majority women (89.5%). Most of the subjects were eutrophic (66.9%) according to BMI, and no image perception disorder according to BSQ34. According to the BSF, 56 students had the silhouette represented by figure 4, however, the figure most desired by 111 students was demonstrated by silhouette 3, (p-value 0.000). Demonstrating the desire for weight loss of the majority, despite being represented by a silhouette eutrophic. Conclusion: Most (66.9%) eutrophic, according to BMI and without image disturbances (54.7%) according to BSQ 34. However, there is a trend of overweight and obese individuals presenting with image disorders.