Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Oct 3:13:920.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-13-920.

Quality of life impairment associated with body dissatisfaction in a general population sample of women

Jonathan Mond  1 , Deborah Mitchison, Janet Latner, Phillipa Hay, Cathy Owen, Bryan Rodgers
Affiliations

Quality of life impairment associated with body dissatisfaction in a general population sample of women

Jonathan Mond et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: In order to elucidate the individual and community health burden of body dissatisfaction (BD), we examined impairment in quality of life associated with BD in a large, general population sample of women.

Methods: Self-report measures of BD, health-related quality of life (SF-12 Physical and Mental Component Summary scales) and subjective quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF Psychological Functioning and Social Relationships subscales) were completed by 5,255 Australian women aged 18 to 42 years.

Results: Most participants (86.9%) reported some level of dissatisfaction with their weight or shape and more than one third (39.4%) reported moderate to marked dissatisfaction. Higher levels of BD were associated with poorer quality of life for all items of both quality of life measures, the degree of impairment being proportional to the degree of BD. Associations were strongest for items tapping mental health and psychosocial functioning, although greater BD was associated with substantially increased risk of impairment in certain aspects of physical health even when controlling for body weight. Post-hoc analysis indicated that the observed associations between BD and quality of life impairment were not accounted for by an association between BD and eating disorder symptoms.

Conclusions: In women, BD is associated with marked impairment in aspects of quality of life relating to mental health and psycho-social functioning and at least some aspects of physical health, independent of its association with body weight and eating disorder symptoms. Greater attention may need to be given to BD as a public health problem. The fact that BD is "normative" should not be taken to infer that it is benign.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Murray CJL, Lopes AD. Global mortality, disability, and the contribution of risk factors: global burden of disease study. Lancet. 1997;349:1436–1442. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(96)07495-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kessler RG, Frank RG. The impact of psychiatric disorders on work loss days. Psychol Med. 1997;27:861–873. doi: 10.1017/S0033291797004807. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sanderson K, Andrews G. Prevalence and severity of mental health-related disability and relationship to diagnosis. Psych Serv. 2002;53:80–86. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.53.1.80. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Orley J, Saxena S, Hermann H. Quality of life and mental illness: reflections from the perspective of the WHOQOL. Br J Psychiatry. 1998;172:291–293. doi: 10.1192/bjp.172.4.291. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Coelho R, Ramos S, Prata J, Bettencourt P, Ferreira A, Cerqueira-Gomes M. Heart failure and health related quality of life. Clin Pract Epidemiol Ment Health. 2005;1:19. doi: 10.1186/1745-0179-1-19. doi: 10.1186/1745-0179-1-19. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types