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Weight patterns and perceptions among female university students of Karachi: a cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: Body weight and its perception play an important role in the physical and mental well-being of a person. Weight perception is found to be a better predictor of weight management behaviour as compared to actual weight. In Pakistan, studies have been done on the prevalence of weight status...

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Autores principales: Sirang, Zubaida, Bashir, Hassaan Hasan, Jalil, Bilal, Khan, Sarah Haroon, Hussain, Samia Altaf, Baig, Aneeqa, Taufeeq, Maryam, Samad, Kashif, Kadir, Muhammad Masood
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3637105/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23496854
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-230
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author Sirang, Zubaida
Bashir, Hassaan Hasan
Jalil, Bilal
Khan, Sarah Haroon
Hussain, Samia Altaf
Baig, Aneeqa
Taufeeq, Maryam
Samad, Kashif
Kadir, Muhammad Masood
author_facet Sirang, Zubaida
Bashir, Hassaan Hasan
Jalil, Bilal
Khan, Sarah Haroon
Hussain, Samia Altaf
Baig, Aneeqa
Taufeeq, Maryam
Samad, Kashif
Kadir, Muhammad Masood
author_sort Sirang, Zubaida
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Body weight and its perception play an important role in the physical and mental well-being of a person. Weight perception is found to be a better predictor of weight management behaviour as compared to actual weight. In Pakistan, studies have been done on the prevalence of weight status but weight perception is still unexplored. The study was done to examine relationships between body weight perception, actual weight status, and weight control behaviour among the female university students of Karachi. METHODS: A cross sectional study was carried out during Sep-Nov 2009 on female students in four universities of Karachi, Pakistan. Our final sample size included 338 female university students. Height and weight were measured on calibrated scales. A modified BMI criterion for Asian populations was used. RESULTS: Based on measured BMI; the prevalence of underweight, normal weight and overweight females was 27.2%, 51.5% and 21.3% respectively. As a whole, just over one third (33.73%) of the sample misclassified their weight status. Among underweight (n=92), 45.70% thought they were of normal weight. No one who was truly underweight perceived them self as overweight. Among the normal weight (n= 174), 9.8% thought they were underweight and 23.6% considered themselves overweight. Among the overweight (n=72); 18.3% considered themselves normal. Only one female student thought she was underweight despite being truly overweight. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that among female university students in Karachi, the prevalence of being underweight is comparatively high. There is a significant misperception of weight, with one third of students misclassifying themselves. Underweight females are likely to perceive themselves as normal and be most satisfied with their weight. Health policy makers should implement these findings in future development of health interventions and prevention of depression, social anxiety and eating disorders associated with incorrect weight perception among young females. Studies that employ a longitudinal approach are needed to validate our findings.
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spelling pubmed-36371052013-04-27 Weight patterns and perceptions among female university students of Karachi: a cross sectional study Sirang, Zubaida Bashir, Hassaan Hasan Jalil, Bilal Khan, Sarah Haroon Hussain, Samia Altaf Baig, Aneeqa Taufeeq, Maryam Samad, Kashif Kadir, Muhammad Masood BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Body weight and its perception play an important role in the physical and mental well-being of a person. Weight perception is found to be a better predictor of weight management behaviour as compared to actual weight. In Pakistan, studies have been done on the prevalence of weight status but weight perception is still unexplored. The study was done to examine relationships between body weight perception, actual weight status, and weight control behaviour among the female university students of Karachi. METHODS: A cross sectional study was carried out during Sep-Nov 2009 on female students in four universities of Karachi, Pakistan. Our final sample size included 338 female university students. Height and weight were measured on calibrated scales. A modified BMI criterion for Asian populations was used. RESULTS: Based on measured BMI; the prevalence of underweight, normal weight and overweight females was 27.2%, 51.5% and 21.3% respectively. As a whole, just over one third (33.73%) of the sample misclassified their weight status. Among underweight (n=92), 45.70% thought they were of normal weight. No one who was truly underweight perceived them self as overweight. Among the normal weight (n= 174), 9.8% thought they were underweight and 23.6% considered themselves overweight. Among the overweight (n=72); 18.3% considered themselves normal. Only one female student thought she was underweight despite being truly overweight. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that among female university students in Karachi, the prevalence of being underweight is comparatively high. There is a significant misperception of weight, with one third of students misclassifying themselves. Underweight females are likely to perceive themselves as normal and be most satisfied with their weight. Health policy makers should implement these findings in future development of health interventions and prevention of depression, social anxiety and eating disorders associated with incorrect weight perception among young females. Studies that employ a longitudinal approach are needed to validate our findings. BioMed Central 2013-03-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3637105/ /pubmed/23496854 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-230 Text en Copyright © 2013 Sirang et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Sirang, Zubaida
Bashir, Hassaan Hasan
Jalil, Bilal
Khan, Sarah Haroon
Hussain, Samia Altaf
Baig, Aneeqa
Taufeeq, Maryam
Samad, Kashif
Kadir, Muhammad Masood
Weight patterns and perceptions among female university students of Karachi: a cross sectional study
title Weight patterns and perceptions among female university students of Karachi: a cross sectional study
title_full Weight patterns and perceptions among female university students of Karachi: a cross sectional study
title_fullStr Weight patterns and perceptions among female university students of Karachi: a cross sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Weight patterns and perceptions among female university students of Karachi: a cross sectional study
title_short Weight patterns and perceptions among female university students of Karachi: a cross sectional study
title_sort weight patterns and perceptions among female university students of karachi: a cross sectional study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3637105/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23496854
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-230
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