Prevalence of muscle dysmorphia in women attending academy

Abstract

Dissatisfaction with its own image seems to be a common occurrence on general population. People with low self-esteem and difficulties in interpersonal relationships may frequently reject or accept the suffering with their own body image and, in some cases; this phenomenon may be described as muscle dysmorphia or, as also called, vigorexia. The dependence of women self-esteem upon their appearance make them more vulnerable to negative body image, the literature presents most of the studies with male individuals and thus, theinterest in assessing the prevalence of vigorexia signs and symptoms in women. Thirty-seven women with mean age of about 29,05±9,237, who practitioner physical activities in two academies in the city of Santa Maria/RS were interviewed. These women responded the “Adonis Complex Questionnaire” which consists in understanding the way image concerns may affect the population daily-life. This questionnaire is a set of 13 questions (A, B, C), with scores that give the raw index showing the gravity of body image concerns. The results demonstrated that the interviewed women have a concern about their body image but, it does not affect their daily-life being considered a female vanity. The educational level of the interviewed was complete higher education (35,1% n= 13), bodybuilding practitioners (45,9% n=17) from which 37,8% n=14 reported that the reason for the practice was weight loss and muscle toning. The statistical analysis was performed using the software SPSS version 18.0. It is possible to conclude that women pursue the thinness ideal while men seek to be stronger and larger.