Perception of Body Image, Eating Disorder, Eating Behaviors and Subjective Health Status of Female High School and College Students in Daegu Area

대구 및 대구근교지역 여대생과 여고생들의 체형인식, 섭식행동 및 건강상태 비교

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship among body image Perception, eating behavior and health status in young females. The survey was carried out by self-questionnaires for 293 female high school students(HS) and 164 female college students(CS) living in Daegu and suburbs of Daegu. For the perception of body image, 9-grade body figure drawings were used based on average Korean body size. EAT-26 and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were used to measure the tendency of eating disorder and self-esteem. It appeared that 40.5% of the subjects were off the normal range of body weight; especially 34.2% of the subject were underweight. The subjects' perception about current body image was within normal range. Almost of all the subjects believed that the ideal body image was thinner than their own current body image, and they wanted to be thinner than their current body image. The change of eating behaviors related to weight control of CS was significantly higher than that of HS students. EAT-26 score, self-esteem score, and subjective health status score were no difference between groups. The cut-off point of the eating disorder in this study was equal to or greater than 20 in EAT-26 score. The rates of the eating disorder were very high as 9.6% of HS and 8.5% of CS. Eating disorder was positively correlated with BMI, current body image, dissatisfaction of body image and the change score of eating behavior. But eating disorder was negatively correlated with health status. From the results of this study, we suggested that one of causes related to the eating disorder behaviors in adolescent females was resulted from misperception about ideal body image. There is a great need to provide nutrition educations concerning appropriate perception of body image and weight control among adolescent females.