Perception of Body Image to Fat Content in Adolescent Girls and Boys

Background: Adolescents are concerned about their physical appearance during socialization. Adolescents are more self-conscious in this age as puberty causesmany hormonal changestooccur. The aim of this study was to assess the perception of body image to the body fat content in these adolescent girls and boys. Objective was to assess body fat content and BMI and to correlate it with the body perception in this population.Methods: Post ethical approval and written informed consent (assent) from the participants, an assessment of the body fat content was done by using skin-fold caliper and by assessing the BMI of 200 adolescent girls and boys between ages of 13 and 15 years. Perception of body image was assessed by using body shape questionnaire (BSQ), which was correlated to body fat content using Spearman’s correlation coefficient with alpha set as <0.05 at 95% CI.Results: The BSQ scores did not indicate any concern of the body shape (26.89±11) in the studied population. Also their Body fat content (15%±6%) and BMI (19.9±3.6) was within the healthy fitness zone. There was a weak positive correlation between the BSQ score and body fat as measured by skin-fold caliper (r=0.182, p=0.010) and also by BMI measurements (r=0.183, p=0.009).Conclusion: There is a normal perception of the body image and normal fat content present in the adolescent population, which has a weak correlation to the actual presence of body fat within them