Perceived Weight and Health Promoting Behavior: Normal and Overweight Adults

Jo, Hyun Sook

Abstract

The objective of study was to clarify whether there are any differences between normal and over-weight adults in their perceived weight, health status, health conception and health promoting behavior. The sample consisted of 238 normal weight and 106 over-weight(11% above on the Body Index Scale) adults, more than 20 years-old, who live in Seoul metropolitan. One participant per household was selected for convenience. The findings from this study are summarized below. 1) Among 106 overweight adults, 30 were above 20% on the Body Index Scale and 11 were above 30%. Twenty-one(19.8%) of the overweight group and 34(14.4%) of the normal weight group had one disease, and there were 30(28.3%) in the overweight group and 46(19.6%) in the normal weight group where one of the family members had a disease, but these differences were not statistically significant. The average monthly family income for the overweight group was 2,220,000 compared to 2,070,000 for the normal weight group, and this difference was statistically significant. The age range for the whole group was between 20 and 74(mean=35.6 for total, 39.4 for overweight and 34.0 for normal weight group). Again significant difference was found. Occupations were salaryman(57.6%), teacher(7.4%), students(5.4%) and others(27.3%). Fifty-six salaryman(70.0%) from the overweight group and 92(52.0%) from the normal group did not constitute a statistically significant different. For the educational status, 90(87.5%) of the overweight adults and 222(93.7%) of the normal weight group finished high school or more educational courses, and there was significant statistical difference. Ninety-two(86.8%) of the overweights and 156(65.5%) of the normal weight group were married, and again significant statistical difference was found. 2) A test for difference in health characteristics between the two weight groups indicated that two groups did not show statistical differences in their perceived health status, health conception or health promoting behavior. That is, the overweight group also perceive their health status as good as the normal group, and regard 'health' as a state that enables them to carry out social roles and functions rather than as the traditional concept of health as no disease or no symptoms. Both group showed slightly high level of health promoting behavior. To determine if no statistical difference might be related to the overweight group's failure of perceive themselves as overweight, the perceived and objective overweight status were compared by the Pearson Correlation Analysis, and a strong corelationship was found(r=.76, p=.000). That is, if participants perceived themselves as overweighted, they thought and replied to be got more weight comparing to the other person who are in same age and sex. However, 43(18.1%) of the normal group perceived themselves as being overweight and 28(26.4%) of the overweight group thought they were of normal weight. Even though the overweight group employed in this study perceived themselves as being overweight, they regarded themselves as healthy as those in the normal weight group. It was shown that there was no statistical difference between the two groups in health conception, health status and health promoting behavior. 3) Perceived health conception was shown to be significantly related to health promoting behavior(r=.20, p=.004 for whole group ; r=.27, p=.009 for overweight group ; and r=.21, p=.001 for normal group). It means that in both group the higher perceived health conception level, the more frequent health promoting behavior. And, perceived health status was also shown to be significantly related to health promoting behavior(r=.16, p=.000) as a whole and especially for overweight group(r=.24, p=.018), but no significant relationship for normal group(r=.08, p=.620). 4) By means of multiple regression analysis, health conception, perceived health status, age, sex and marital status provided predicted 15.18% on health promoting behavior.