Abstract
Purpose : This study investigated the relationship between body type, subjective symptoms and health awareness in female high school students Methods : The subjects were 393 students at the female high school in Taejon City by self-recorded questionnaires in May, 2006. Results : In the classification of body type based on the degree of obesity, low weight group was 20.9%, normal weight group was 58.0%, over weight group was 11.7% and obesity group was 9.4%. In the level of body type wareness, those who consider themselves to be obesity type 13.7%, standard type were 43.8%, and leptosomic type 8.1%, but there was a clear tendency to be leptosomic type that the rate was 76.3%. In the complaint rates of subjective symptoms, “fatigue” was the highest, followed by “neck pain(stiffness)”, “dizziness”, “stomachache” in the descending order. In the complaint rates of subjective symptoms by the degree of obesity, dizziness, irregular menstruation and anorexia were higher according to the lower obesity, but constipation and wearied eyes were the higher the more obesity. Conclusion : The study results showed that the recent female high school students were clear tendency to be leptosomic type, and leptosomic and obesity type were related with subjective symptoms. Considering these findings, it appeared that being excessively thin is related to symptoms and young women's thinness-oriented attitudes are unhealthful.