Ideal weight vs. Bmi as predictors of self reported health in young adults

• Manuel Alcaraz-Ibáñez ^[1] ; Elena Martínez-Rosales ^[1] ; Alba Hernández-Martínez ^[1] ; Enrique G. Artero ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad de Almería

     Universidad de Almería

     Almería, España

     
• Localización: BIAH 2018. International Congress of Body Image & Health 6, 7 y 8 de junio de 2018: Libro de actas / coord. por Manuel Alcaraz Ibáñez, María Carrasco Poyatos, José Gabriel Espinosa Villegas, Antonio Granero Gallegos, María Jesús Lirola Manzano, Isabel Martın Fuentes, José Miguel Rodríguez Palacios, Álvaro Sicilia Camacho, 2019, ISBN 978-84-17261-31-3, pág. 39
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Introduction: Self-reported health has proven to be a valid predictor of increased use of healthservices, future morbidity and life expectancy. The negative relationship between body mass index(BMI) and self-reported health is well documented. However, the relationship between subjectiveweight discrepancy (i.e., perceiving him or herself below or above the considered ideal weight) andself-reported health is still insufficiently known. This limitation may be relevant according to (a) thebroadly subjective character of self-reported health, and (b) previous evidence suggesting that bothoverweight/obese and underweighted men may experience lower self-reported health. This study wasaimed at comparing BMI and weight gain/loss to reach ideal weight as cross-sectional predictors ofself-reported health in young adults of both sexes.Methods: A total of 718 Spanish undergraduates (49% females, 96% white) aged between 18 and 28(Mage = 20.73, SDage = 2.31) filled in a self-reported questionnaire comprising the variables of interest.Weight loss to reach ideal weight (WLIW) was estimated by subtracting subjective ideal-BMI fromself-reported actual-BMI. Likewise, weight gain to reach ideal weight (WGIW) was estimated by subtractingself-reported actual-BMI from subjective chosen ideal-BMI. When calculating both WLIGand WGIW, negative values were truncated to zero. Two linear regression analyses aimed to predictself-reported health were independently conducted for women and men. In the first model (M1), age,income-level satisfaction, exercise habits and BMI were introduced as independent variables. In thesecond model (M2), both WGIW and WLIW were introduced instead of BMI.Results: M1 and M2 respectively explained a 16.9% and 17.2% of self-reported health in the case ofwomen and a 15.3% and 17.7% in the case of men. WLIW emerged as a significant cross-sectionalpredictor of self-reported global health both in men (α = -.209, p < .001) and women (α = -.173,p = .001). Conversely, WGIW emerged as significant cross-sectional predictor in men (α = -.140,p = .009) but not in women (α = -.005, p = .920).Conclusions: WLIW and WGIW may be better cross-sectional predictors of self-reported healththan BMI in young men