Publication Details
Flanagan, R.,
Waugh, D.,
Meng, X.,
Kanjo, E.,
&
Krejany, C.
(2018).
Who knows what 'healthy weight' looks like?.
The Journal of Health Design, 3 (2), 104-108.
Abstract
Background: Obesity is a global epidemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975. In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight and had corresponding increases in well-recognised, associated chronic diseases.
Aims: This study aimed to explore whether the general population is able to identify a healthy BMI and accurately perceive their own BMI using a visual scale.
Method: A cross-sectional, population-based survey of 103 participants were shown a visual scale of computer-generated images representing different BMIs and asked to identify: (1) which images represented a healthy body weight; (2) which image best represented their body; and (3) whether they thought they were a healthy or unhealthy body size.
Conclusion: Overweight participants were significantly less likely to correctly identify their own BMI on a visual scale (38.9 per cent, p
Keywords
overweight, obesity, self-perception, body mass index
