Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate body recognition, eating patterns, and health status of female college students in Seoul according to body mass index. In this study, we classified subjects as underweight, normal weight, and obese according to BMI. The mean age of subjects was $20.69{\pm}1.72$ years. Average height, weight or BMI of subjects were $161.49{\pm}5.39cm$, $52.17{\pm}6.53kg$ and $20.01{\pm}2.35kg/m^2$, respectively. Body satisfaction rate was 11.5% for 'Yes', whereas body dissatisfaction rate was 88.5% (p<0.05). Body dissatisfaction rates for the 'overweight', 'body dissatisfaction' and 'underweight' groups were 54.7%, 37.5% and 3.1%, respectively. The most common reason for controlling weight was 52.8% for 'to look pretty', whereas 'stress' at 45.5% was the most common in the obese group. 'Exercise + diet therapy' was used by 48.7%, followed by 'hungry' (23.9%), 'exercise' (17.3%) and 'intermittent diet' (6.1%). 'Regular exercise' 35.3%, 'A good rest & sleep' 32.4% and 'Regular meals & taking nutrition' 26.6% were significantly important (p<0.05). Overeating was lower among obese subjects, whereas consumption of fried foods and high-fat meats was higher (p<0.05). These results suggest the need for proper nutrition education for college students.

Keywords

• BMI;
• body awareness;
• weight-control;
• eating habit;
• healthy eating index