Socioeconomic status and misperception of body mass index among Mexican adults

Abstract

Objective. To estimate the association between perceived body mass index (BMI) and socioeconomic variables in adults in Mexico. Materials and methods. We studied 32 052 adults from the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Sur­vey of 2006. We estimated BMI misperception by comparing the respondent’s weight perception (as categories of BMI) with the corresponding category according to measured weight and height. Misperception was defined as respondent’s perception of a BMI category different from their actual cat­egory. Socioeconomic status was assessed using household assets. Logistic and multinomial regression models by gender and BMI category were estimated. Results. Adult women and men highly underestimate their BMI category. We found that the probability of a correct classification was lower than the probability of getting a correct result by chance alone. Bet­ter educated and more affluent individuals are more likely to have a correct perception of their weight status, particularly among overweight adults. Conclusions. Given that a correct perception of weight has been associated with an increased search of weight control and that our results show that the studied population underestimated their BMI, interventions providing definitions and consequences of overweight and obesity and encouraging the population to monitor their weight could be beneficial.

The effect of a medical opinion on self-perceptions of weight for Mexican adults: perception of change and cognitive biases

“…It has been argued that identification leads to a more accurate self-perception of BMI, in the case of the obese [17, 29]. However, it has also been shown that over-assessment of weight is prevalent [13].…”

“…Several studies also exist for the Mexican population with differing points of emphasis. Adult-based investigations are mainly divided into separate male and female studies that then include other conditions, including socioeconomic status [17] and age [18, 19]. Several studies have compared similar groups between Mexico and the United States [20–22].…”

“…Thus, correcting perception of weight status may be an important consideration in the design of weight loss interventions. It has also been shown that an identification of obesity by a healthcare professional [17, 29] is correlated to a lower degree of misperception of BMI among the overweight and obese. What is not clear, however, is if this leads to better outcomes in terms of weight reduction and/or healthier lifestyles, though there is some evidence that awareness of obesity can have a positive effect [30].…”

Predictors of Persistent Body Weight Misclassification from Adolescence Period to Adulthood: A Longitudinal Study

“…Inaccurate perception of one's own body weight is a relatively common phenomenon observed in adolescents and adults [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. It has been suggested that body weight misclassification may begin from adolescence and continue to adulthood [9][10][11], and that body weight misclassification may enhance vulnerability to some physical and mental health problems including increase in body weight, following unhealthy diet, anxiety, and depression [1,[12][13][14][15][16].…”

“…Comparing studies of adolescent and adult weight misclassification, it is unclear whether misclassification is more or less common among adults than among adolescents, particularly for people who are overweight or obese [1,2,[4][5][6][7]. Several studies have reported that body weight misclassification among overweight and obese adults ranges from 37% to 62%, whereas others show that from 44.7% to 80.9% overweight and obese adolescents misclassified their body weight [1,5,8,20]. The magnitude of weight misclassification prevalence might vary depending on the methods used to measure weight perception (e.g., word or verbal descriptions, sketch, or figures).…”