[Assessment of self-perceived body image in female adolescents aged 12-21 years in the city of Reus (Spain)].
OBJECTIVE
To assess the degree of body image distortion in female adolescents and evaluate its association with the social esthetic model and the adoption of dietary measures.


METHODS
We performed a cross sectional, observational study in a random sample of female adolescents aged 12 to 21 years old. Information was gathered via two different sources. A structured questionnaire including sociodemographic and anthropometric items was administered to determine adolescents' desire to resemble advertising models, their satisfaction with trouser size, and whether they would follow an unsupervised diet, etc. A game consisting of 9 images of female shapes of increasing size was used to evaluate self-perceived body image. The subjects chose the shape they believed most closely resembled their own.


RESULTS
A sample of 401 subjects with a mean age of 17.6 (standard deviation = 2.6) years was evaluated. Seventy-five percent had normal weight, 11% were overweight, 13% were obese, and 0.8% were underweight. A total of 76.8% of the subjects had distorted body image and wished to look like advertising models (p < 0.001), 47.7% were dissatisfied with their trouser size (p < 0.001), and 15.3% were following special diets without supervision (p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The majority of adolescents aged between 13 and 21 years old were dissatisfied with their body image. A distorted body image translates into wanting to resemble advertising models and dissatisfaction with trouser size, which in turn leads to following unsupervised diets.
Servei d'Atenció Primaria Reus-Altebrat, Reus, Tarragona, España. molesti.tarte.ics@gencat.net
Montserrat
M
Olesti-Baiges
Nuria
N
Martín-Vergara
Alba
A
Riera-Solé
Marta
M
de la Fuente-García
Josep M
JM
Bofarull-Bosch
Gabriela
G
Ricomá-de Castellarnau
Josep Lluís
JL
Piñol Moreso
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001828:Body Image; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012649:Self Concept; D013030:Spain; D014505:Urban Population