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Women up to 10 times more likely to have poor body image than men

Perceptions of body image among working men and women 2001; 55; 406-7

Women are up to 10 times more likely to have a distorted body image than men, shows a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Questionnaires were sent to men and women working in a bank and a university in the UK. Recipients were asked to provide details of their height and weight, and to indicate if they thought they were too heavy, too light, or about the right weight. Bank employees included full time clerical, supervisory, and managerial staff, while those at the University held clerical, technical, and academic posts.

Altogether, over 2000 bank employees and over 1500 university staff responded to the questionnaire. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated from the details provided, to find out if the respondents were the appropriate weight for their height.

Men were more likely to be overweight than women. Almost four out of 10 bank workers and over a third of male university employees were overweight. But only 21 per cent of female bank workers and just under 30 per cent of the female university staff fell into this category.

But women were significantly more likely than men to perceive themselves as overweight, even when their weight was within the appropriate range for their height. Overall, female university employees were three times as likely, and female bank workers 10 times as likely as men, to do this.

"Our findings suggest that concern about women's perceptions of their body image are well founded," conclude the authors.

Contact:

Dr Carol Emslie, Medical Research Council Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Scotland. ecarol@msoc.mrc.gla.ac.uk

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