Body image, level of physical activity and nutritional status of physical education college students

Abstract

Introduction: Physical Education students may be especially exposed to body image and lifestyle assessments. Objective: To evaluate the body image, physical activity level and nutritional status, verifying the associations with sex and period of the course, of Physical Education students at a Brazilian public university. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 352 university students, men and women. Dissatisfaction and body image perception were assessed using the Silhouette Scale by Kakeshita et al., (2009). The level of physical activity was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-C). Nutritional status was assessed using body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). Descriptive analyzes were performed, with mean (±sd) and frequencies. Differences between groups (gender and semester ranges) were tested using the chi-square test, with a significance level of 5%. Results: The average age of university students was 23.6 (±6.2), 92.3% were considered active/very active, 44.2% and 77.6% had adequate WHR and WHtR values, respectively. About body image, 23.2% are satisfied, 47.5% want to reduce their silhouette and 29.5% want to increase their silhouette. For body perception, 17.8% perceive themselves as they are, while 47.9% perceive themselves as smaller and 34.3% perceive themselves as larger than they really are. There is a greater desire to reduce the figure among women. Conclusion: The university students showed adequate levels of physical activity. There is a high number of university students who are dissatisfied with their body image, especially among women.