Self-evaluation of appearance by female medicine students

Abstract

Background and Study Aim. Nowadays western culture promotes appearance-wise the ideal of a slim body. The purpose of the research was to study body composition of female medicine students and compare these results with their self-evaluation on the problem. Material and Methods. Ninety-nine Casimir Pulaski Radom University in Radom females students (22.0±2.1 years old) who studied at a medicine faculty have been involved in the research. The study was conducted in accordance with the basic bioethical norms of the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association on Ethical Principles for Conducting Scientific and Medical Research. Written informed consent was obtained from each study participant. The study was approved in advance by Ethical Committee of the Casimir Pulaski Radom University in Radom. The studies included survey research: The International Physical Activity Questionnaires (IPAQ) - Short Form, The 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5), Questionnaire of self-evaluation of appearance, body mass and height. According to the Three Sigma Rule border values, research samples were selected regarding compacted values of corresponding parameters. Pearson correlation has been used with a purpose to study an interaction between anthropometric parameters of subjects. Two pair t-test for arithmetic means was applied to compare mean values of the anthropometric parameters of the subjects. Factor analysis has been used with a purpose to study body building of students. Calculations were done using Data Analysis from MS Excel Offices and computer package Statistica. Results. Shapiro – Wilk method was used to determine normality of distribution of quantity parameters studied in the research (p>0.4). Because Gauss distribution was noticed, parametric statistics were applied in mathematics elaboration of anthropometric parameters. According to the Method of Principal components, the Factor analysis has been done. A number of variables were reduced to twenty-three (11 – 33). Three Eigenvalues appeared greater than one (17.4; 3.3; 1.1). Number of factors extracted equals 3. Corresponding part of variation forms 94.7% of the total. The rest of variation (5.3%) presents other factors. The main factor (the first one) forms more than three quarters of variation – 75.7%. Conclusions. Accuracy of estimation of a body height among female subjects was determined as a difference between results of subject’s answer and results of measurement. Two groups of subjects have been formed: 58 subjects presented their knowledge of values of body height and 38 subjects – estimated their own hypothetic values.