Objectivity of self-evaluated obesity and attitude toward weight control among college students

대학생의 인식체형과 체격지수에 의한 비만도의 차이 및 체중조절 태도

The difference between self-evaluated obesity and obesity index of RBW and BMI as well as attitude toward weight control were studied among college students in Chungnam area. The subjects of 307 students were randomly selected and asked to categorize their body shape into 5 groups and to record their body weight and height. We found that average RBW and BMI of the students were 95.7% and 20.6, respectively. By RBW, 30.6% of students belonged to underweight and severe-underweight groups whereas 14.0% overweight and obesity ones. The female students showed lower obesity indice than the male. Self-evaluated obesity seemed likely to overestimate their body shapes above RBW and BMI, which lead to high unsatisfactioin toward their body shape. The overestimation was profound in normal weighted female students up to 20%. Misunderstanding about their obesity, especially among female college students, should be corrected necessarily by proper nutrition counseling and nutrition education, unless malnutrition could be serious in college students.