• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.160-166
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• 2020

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The obese population is rapidly increasing because of reduced physical activity and a Westernized diet; consequently, various chronic diseases are more prevalent. With the increasing interest in body shape and appearance, research on body shape perceptions and accompanying weight control behaviors are needed for healthy weight management. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on randomly selected 536 (209 men and 327 women) aged 20 to 65 years. Body mass index (BMI), body-shape perception, weight control behavior, quality of sleep, and place of residence were collected using self-reported questionnaires. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted using complex design in each groups. Collected data were analyzed using the SAS 9.4 statistical package, and the significance level was set at P < 0.05. RESULTS: When these two variables were divided into four groups, they were found to influence dieting attempts. People with abnormal weights who were dissatisfied with their body shapes attempted dieting 5.23 times more than those with healthy weights and satisfaction with their body shapes. Further, those with normal weights but dissatisfaction with their bodies attempted dieting 4.45 times more than those who were satisfied with their shapes. Subjects in their 20s attempted dieting 2.53 times more than those in their 30s and 40s, and female subjects attempted dieting 2.24 times more than male subjects. CONCLUSIONS: A correct perception of one's shape can be an important factor for dietary behavior, as body shape perceptions and dieting attempts are strongly related. Additionally, healthy weight management and nutrition education are important elements to incorporate into a weight control program aimed at preventing excessive weight control behaviors and promoting correct perceptions of body shape.

• Nutritional Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.245-255
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• 2002

This study was designed to investigate body image, objective and subjective measurements of body size and shape, eating behavior, and weight control practices in 650 Korean adolescent girls; 500 of the subjects were 14 years old and enrolled in middle schools, while the remaining 150 were 17 years old and enrolled in high schools. Subjects responded anonymously to a self-administered questionnaire. The results showed that average height and weight of the subjects were 157cm and 49.5kg, respectively, while subjects ideal heights and weights averaged 164cm and 48kg, respectively. The ideal adult body heights and weights proposed by the subjects averaged 172cm and 55kg respectively. Over 50% of the subjects were dissatisfied with their body image; the degree of dissatisfaction with body image was higher in those who believed themselves to be fat. Most of the subjects wanted to lose weight and had tried to lose weight. Self-reported weight control practice methods included reducing food intake (31.9%), skipping meals (29.6%), exercise (25.8%), using slimming machines (6.9%), and using diet pills (5.1%). The heavier the subjects weight was, the greater the difference between the subjective and objective evaluations of body size. The body image scores of subjects who perceived themselves as fat were significantly lower than those of subjects who perceived themselves as normal or underweight. The difference between subjective and objective evaluations of body size, and the degree of obesity, were significantly higher in those subjects who had experience of weight control than those who had no experience of weight control. These results suggest that nutrition and health education programs for adolescent girls should be researched and implemented in order to establish a more realistic body image, positive habits in weight control, and healthful eating habits.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.175-181
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• 2012

The widespread pursuit of a thin physique may have a detrimental impact on the wellbeing of preadolescents. The influence of body image distortions on the lifestyles, dieting behaviors, and psychological factors was investigated in 631 fifth and sixth grade children in Kyeonggi-do, Korea. Children were classified into three weight groups (underweight, normal, and overweight) and three perception groups (underestimation, normal, and overestimation). Necessary information was obtained by questionnaire, and each subject's weight status was determined by the Rohrer index calculated from the annual measurement records, which were obtained from the school. According to their current weights, 57.4% of children were normal and 32.2% were overweight or obese, 16.6% of the children overestimated their body weight, and 55.2% had an undistorted body image. Overweight children had desirable lifestyles and dietary habits and presented reasonable weight control behaviors. Compared to those without distortion, the overestimated group had greater interest in weight control ($P$ = 0.003) and dissatisfaction with their body weights ($P$ = 0.011), presented unhealthy reasons to lose weight ($P$ = 0.026), and had higher scores for "feeling sad when comparing own body with others" ($P$ = 0.000) and for "easily getting annoyed and tired" ($P$ = 0.037), even though they had similar obesity indices. More subjects from the overestimation group ($P$ = 0.006) chose drama/movies as their favorite TV programs, suggesting a possible role for the media in body image distortion. These findings suggest that body image distortion can lead preadolescents to develop stress about obesity and unhealthy dieting practices, despite similar obesity indices to those without distorted body images. These results emphasize the importance of having an undistorted body image.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.126-130
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• 2007

Obesity is a worldwide epidemic problem. The downward trend of an obesity onset age calls for research efforts on how to develop useful nutrition educational programs for children to maintain adequate body weight. Understanding the roles of objective and subjective body status in obesity-related attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors can provide important information. The current study aimed to examine obesity-related attitudes and knowledge and practices of eating behavior guidelines in relation to obesity and body shape satisfaction among children. The gender effect in the relations was also investigated. A self-administered survey was conducted with 260 fifth grade children at 2 public elementary schools in the suburbs of Seoul. Information on demographics, body size, body satisfaction, obesity-related attitudes and knowledge, and eating behaviors was collected. Study findings from one-way analysis of variance tests indicated no differences in mean scores of the attitudes, knowledge, and eating behaviors across the levels of obesity for both gender. The levels of body shape satisfaction was, however, found to be significantly related with the attitudes and eating behaviors in girls, while no such relation was seen in boys. Girls with lower body shape dissatisfaction had significantly more negative attitudes toward obesity which was not translated into practice of healthy eating behaviors. That is, contrary to general expectation, the level of practicing the eating behavior guidelines was significantly lower in those girls. While underlying reasons for this observation is not fully answered, gender-specific, body satisfaction-stratified, and behavior-focused approach in designing obesity prevention programs for elementary school girls is suggested efficient and useful.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.805-813
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• 2005

Concern about body weight among adolescents is too much, so distorted body images and weight control are serious problems among Korean girl students. This study was carried out to investigate perception of body images, weight control, food habits and eating behavior of 237 high school girl students in Seoul and Incheon. The subjects were divided into four groups based on Body Mass Index (BMI)-under weight ($21.3\%$), normal ($62.6\%$), over weight ($8.1\%$) and obesity ($8.1\%$). The survey was conducted from June to July 2005. The mean weight, length and BMI of the subjects was $53.4\pm7.4\;g,\;101\pm4.8\;cm,\;and\;20.6\pm2.7$, respectively. $56\%$ of the under weight group and $40.8\%$ of normal group had incorrect perception about their body images and $28.5\%$ of the under weight group and $76.9\%$ of the normal group had dissatisfaction about their body images. Most of the students were concerned about their body images and weight control. Dietary habit scores showed significant differences among the groups. These results suggested that effective nutritional programs should be developed including correct Perception of body image and good dietary habits. (Korean J Community Nutrition 10(6) : $805\∼813$, 2005)

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.231-243
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• 2000

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between body image and BMI with satisfaction of own body image, snack intake practices, food intake practices and weight control practices of 226 female college students in Jeonbuk province using questionnaire. The results were summarized as follows : 1. The average height, weight and BMI was 162.08cm, 52.02kg and 19.78, respectively. The average ideal body weight of the subjects was 48.92kg. Ninety percent of the subjects was dissatisfied with their body image. The degree of dissatisfaction was higher in the group who recognized themselves as fat. Most of subjects wanted to lose weight, but as the group having a recognition of thin body image significantly wanted to gain weight (p<0.001). 2. The subjects preferred fruits and juices for snack. The more subjects recognized themselves as fat, the more they restricted snack intake (p<0.05). 3. The rate of skipping meal tends to increase. The subjects did not intake balanced meals and skipped breakfast most (20.7%). The number of food groups taken at breakfast, lunch and dinner was 1.84, 2.25 and 2.55, respectively and the most variable food groups were taken at dinner(p<0.001). Dairy food group intake was low. The duration of meal time was longer in the underweight group by BMI regardless of body image recognition (p<0.05). 4. The weight controlling method was concentrated mostly on decreasing food intake. The more subjects recognized themselves as fat, the more they tried to control weight (p<0.001). Even though 59.5% of the subjects with no weight control experience had no future weight control plans, 50% of the group who recognized themselves as normal or fat did not want to control weight in the future (p<0.01). These results suggest that nutrition education programs and correction programs of food behaviors and weight control should start from focusing on the accurate recognition of body image for college female students.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.113-122
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate weight control and the relative influence of individual variables affecting children's attempts to control weight. The study subjects were 319 elementary school children. First, the average body height and weight of the children who participated in this study was somewhat larger in boys and similar in girls, as compared with the normal body shape of Korean children. More boys were classified as overweight than girls, based on BMI. Both boys and girls were dissatisfied with their body shape, and especially the girls showed higher dissatisfaction rate than the boys did. Almost half of the children were concerned about weight control and girls had higher concern than boys. Of the children, 38.8% had controlled their weight; however there was no difference between their sexes. There were significant differences between children who had and had not experienced weight control in the following variables: stress caused by obesity, body satisfaction, BMI, subjective body shape perception and concern about weight control. Therefore, discriminant function analysis was performed to determine the discrimination of these variables between the two groups. From the analysis results, the most critical factor was BMI in the boys and concern about weight control in the girls. This finding should be reflected in the design of weight control programs for children i.e., boys should be encouraged to perceive correctly their own body shape and to control weight by maintaining a well-balanced diet and moderate exercise over a long period of time, rather than by skipping meals, while girls should be inspired with sound values and attitudes regarding their body shape, rather than provided with the concrete information on how to control weight.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.89-103
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• 2006

This study was performed to provide sources of nutrition education for female adolescents by identifying eating disorder patterns and their relationships with self-body image, weight control, and eating behavior. A total of 329 female middle school students were recruited and completed a general characteristics survey, the Eating Attitudes Test(EAT-26), a perception of self-body image survey, a concern for weight control survey, an eating behavior survey, and the Mini Dietary Assessment Index(MDA). Eating disorder patterns were identified to be obesity stress and weight control(OW), risk of binge eating(RB), and dietary restraint(DR) by factor analysis. OW pattern was related with stout body shape, body dissatisfaction, experience of weight control, skipping of dinner, and low MDA score. RB pattern was associated with lean body shape, body satisfaction, indiscreet snack behavior, and the eating time of snacks. The DR pattern was associated with normal body shape, regular meal times, desirable snack behavior, and high MDA scores. The results indicated that the eating patterns of adolescent were not identical to existing diagnostic categories. Furthermore, each eating pattern displayed different characteristics of perception on self-body image, concern for weight control, and eating behavior. In conclusion, nutrition education for female middle school students could reflect the different characteristics of each eating disorder pattern.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.115-126
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• 2005

This Quantitative study was investigated to examine the relationship between self-esteem on body image and disordered eating patterns in some university students. This study used a cross-sectional study design. Total 347 students participated in this study (88 male and 259 female) among three universities. The assessment of eating disorder was conducted by Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), a score of >or=20 identified individuals likely have an eating disorder, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Ideal body weight and current body weight were completed with self-evaluation. A distorted body image was independently related to the eating problem in the Logistic regression analysis. There were stronger relationships between their EAT-26 scores and their expected weight changes and weight control behaviors. Compared with the men, women showed highly wishful to loss for current body weight. In the relationship between score of EAT-26 and BMI distance by sex, levels of eating disorder showed linearly elevated toward increased BMI distance (Ideal BMI-Current BMI) (F-value=18.794, p<0.0001) in women, but there were not significant in men (F-value=2.028, p>0.05). In estimate on state-trait anxiety inventory according to quartile of BMI distance by sex, levels of state-trait anxiety were not significant difference by degree of body dissatisfaction in all sex. In addition, higher distorted body image was significantly increased numbers of weight control method and experience of side effects in female, but there were not showed significant relation between two variables in male.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.447-456
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• 2013

This study was conducted to find out the weight control experiences, body image perception and eating disorder status of high school students in Yantai City, Shandong Province, China. The subjects of the study were 457 high school students in Yantai City. The results were as follows. The ratio of underweight and overweight and obesity of the subjects were 20.0% and 12.6% respectively. And 35% of the subjects had weight control experiences. There were significant differences according to the students' gender, location and BMI. In body image perception, the subjects who were normal and underweight overestimated their body figure, and the subjects who were overweight and obese underestimated their body figure. The girls wanted to have extremely skinny figure than standard figure and the degree of dissatisfactions with their figure was high. In the case of overweight and obese students, it showed a high degree of dissatisfaction of their body image. The ratio of the eating disorder group and eating disorder risk group were 7% and 19.3%, Compared to the students in rural areas, downtown students had significantly higher ratio of eating disorder. In conclusion, the education of healthy body weight and body image is necessary to the students in Yantai City, China. Especially the female students who live in downtown are considered to be the most important subjects of nutrition education.