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The effect of a medical opinion on self-perceptions of weight for Mexican adults: perception of change and cognitive biases

BACKGROUND: This study analysed the relationship between perceived and actual Body Mass Index (BMI) and the effect of a prior identification of obesity by a medical professional for adults using difference in response for two distinct BMI self-perception questions. Typically, self-perception studies...

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Autores principales: Easton, Jonathan F., Stephens, Christopher R., Román Sicilia, Heriberto
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5414120/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28469931
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40608-017-0152-6
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author Easton, Jonathan F.
Stephens, Christopher R.
Román Sicilia, Heriberto
author_facet Easton, Jonathan F.
Stephens, Christopher R.
Román Sicilia, Heriberto
author_sort Easton, Jonathan F.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: This study analysed the relationship between perceived and actual Body Mass Index (BMI) and the effect of a prior identification of obesity by a medical professional for adults using difference in response for two distinct BMI self-perception questions. Typically, self-perception studies only investigate the relation with current weight, whereas here the focus is on the self-perception of weight differences. METHODS: A statistical approach was used to assess responses to the Mexican ENSANUT 2006 survey. Adults in the range of BMI from 13 to 60 were tested on responses to a categorical question and a figure rating scale self-perception question. Differences in response by gender and identification of obesity by a medical professional were analysed using linear regression. RESULTS: Results indicated that regardless of current BMI and gender, a verbal intervention by a medical professional will increase perceived BMI independently of actual BMI but does not necessarily make the identified obese more accurate in their BMI estimates. A shift in the average self-perception was seen with a higher response for the identified obese. A linear increase in perceived BMI as a function of actual BMI was observed in the range BMI < 35 but with a rate of increase much less than expected if weight differences were perceived accurately. CONCLUSIONS: Obese and overweight Mexican adults not only underestimated their weight, but also, could not accurately judge changes in weight. For example, an increase of 5 kg is imagined, in terms of self-image, to be considerably less. It was seen that an identification of obesity by a health care professional did not improve ability to judge weight but, rather, served as a new anchor from which the identified obese judge their weight, suggesting that even those identified obese who have lost weight, perceive their weight to be greater than it actually is. We believe that these results can be explained in terms of two cognitive biases; the self-serving bias and the anchoring bias.
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spelling pubmed-54141202017-05-03 The effect of a medical opinion on self-perceptions of weight for Mexican adults: perception of change and cognitive biases Easton, Jonathan F. Stephens, Christopher R. Román Sicilia, Heriberto BMC Obes Research Article BACKGROUND: This study analysed the relationship between perceived and actual Body Mass Index (BMI) and the effect of a prior identification of obesity by a medical professional for adults using difference in response for two distinct BMI self-perception questions. Typically, self-perception studies only investigate the relation with current weight, whereas here the focus is on the self-perception of weight differences. METHODS: A statistical approach was used to assess responses to the Mexican ENSANUT 2006 survey. Adults in the range of BMI from 13 to 60 were tested on responses to a categorical question and a figure rating scale self-perception question. Differences in response by gender and identification of obesity by a medical professional were analysed using linear regression. RESULTS: Results indicated that regardless of current BMI and gender, a verbal intervention by a medical professional will increase perceived BMI independently of actual BMI but does not necessarily make the identified obese more accurate in their BMI estimates. A shift in the average self-perception was seen with a higher response for the identified obese. A linear increase in perceived BMI as a function of actual BMI was observed in the range BMI < 35 but with a rate of increase much less than expected if weight differences were perceived accurately. CONCLUSIONS: Obese and overweight Mexican adults not only underestimated their weight, but also, could not accurately judge changes in weight. For example, an increase of 5 kg is imagined, in terms of self-image, to be considerably less. It was seen that an identification of obesity by a health care professional did not improve ability to judge weight but, rather, served as a new anchor from which the identified obese judge their weight, suggesting that even those identified obese who have lost weight, perceive their weight to be greater than it actually is. We believe that these results can be explained in terms of two cognitive biases; the self-serving bias and the anchoring bias. BioMed Central 2017-05-03 /pmc/articles/PMC5414120/ /pubmed/28469931 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40608-017-0152-6 Text en © The Author(s). 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Easton, Jonathan F.
Stephens, Christopher R.
Román Sicilia, Heriberto
The effect of a medical opinion on self-perceptions of weight for Mexican adults: perception of change and cognitive biases
title The effect of a medical opinion on self-perceptions of weight for Mexican adults: perception of change and cognitive biases
title_full The effect of a medical opinion on self-perceptions of weight for Mexican adults: perception of change and cognitive biases
title_fullStr The effect of a medical opinion on self-perceptions of weight for Mexican adults: perception of change and cognitive biases
title_full_unstemmed The effect of a medical opinion on self-perceptions of weight for Mexican adults: perception of change and cognitive biases
title_short The effect of a medical opinion on self-perceptions of weight for Mexican adults: perception of change and cognitive biases
title_sort effect of a medical opinion on self-perceptions of weight for mexican adults: perception of change and cognitive biases
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5414120/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28469931
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40608-017-0152-6
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