Dissatisfaction with body image and its relation to nutritional status, cardiometabolic risk and cardiorespiratory capacity in public school children.

Dissatisfaction with body image and its relation to nutritional status, cardiometabolic risk and cardiorespiratory capacity in public school children.

Nutrición Hospitalaria, September 2017

29130700

Pedro Antonio Delgado Floody, Cristian Martínez Salazar, Felipe Caamaño Navarrete, Daniel Jerez Mayorga, Aldo Osorio Poblete, Felipe García Pinillos, Pedro Latorre Román

The increase in abdominal fat and excess weight are related to dissatisfaction with body image, which nowadays is highly prevalent nationally and internationally. The purpose of the study was to relate dissatisfaction levels to body image, nutritional status, cardiometabolic risk and cardiorespiratory capacity in pre-adolescent students. Three hundred and thirty-nine students participated in the study, 165 girls (11.29 ± 0.69 years) and 174 boys (11.22 ± 0.72 years). Anthropometric data were collected: BMI, percentage of body fat (%BF), waist circumference (WC), height-to-weight ratio (HWR), VO2max and body image. In the comparison by sex, we found higher V02max values in boys (p < 0.001). No significant differences were found for the variables BMI, WC, HWR, blood pressure and body image (p > 0.05); 27.7% of the study sample were overweight and 29.2% were obese. The subjects with obesity had the lowest VO2max levels. Dissatisfaction with body image was found to be associated with nutritional status (p < 0.001). In addition, 8.1% of the obese students presented extreme dissatisfaction with their body image and 19.4% of the children with cardiometabolic risk exhibited some type of dissatisfaction; the two variables were related (p = 0.008). The study provides evidence that children with malnutrition by excess present disorders associated with body dissatisfaction and other health indicators that limit integral growth in pre-adolescence.