Obesity, Eating Disorders and Body Dissatisfaction

Question 1

What are the obesity statistics in Australia?

Answer 1

Question 2

What impacts how men and women feel about their bodies?

Answer 2

Question 3

How is obesity operationalised?

Answer 3

BMI

Question 4

What is the prevalence of obesity?

Answer 4

• Prevalence has increased dramatically during past 3 decades but appears to be levelling off in recent years
• Prevalence of overweight (approx. 40%) and mild obesity (approx. 20%) far higher than that of moderate-severe obesity (approx. 10%)

Question 5

What are the adverse affects of obesity?

Answer 5

Physical health: diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high BP

Mental health: Little or no association with mental health impairment independent of mediating factors, namely, BD, EDB and poor physical health, which are also far more likely for moderate-severe obesity

Question 6

What is eating disordered behaviour (EDB)?

Answer 6

Includes eating disorders and sub-clinical variants of these

Question 7

What is the prevalence of eating disordered behaviour?

Answer 7

Approx. 10% women and 5% men but numbers increasing for both sexes

Question 8

What are the adverse effects of eating disordered behaviour?

Answer 8

Physical health: Little or no association with physical health impairment other than medicalcomplications associated with very low body weight (anorexia) and chronic use of extreme weight-control behaviours (anorexia and bulimia)

Mental health: association with mental health impairment, particularly symptoms of anxiety and depression

Question 9

What is body dissatisfaction (BD)?

Answer 9

A personʼs negative thoughts about his or her body, including negative evaluations of body size, shape, muscularity/muscle tone, and weight, and usually involving a perceived discrepancy between a personʼs evaluation of his or her body and his or her ideal body

Question 10

What is the prevalence of BD?

Answer 10

Common in women (“normative discontent”) and, increasingly, men

Question 11

What are the adverse effects of BD?

Answer 11

Physical health: Little or no association with physical health impairment independent of mediating factors

Mental health: Strong association with mental health impairment in both women and men, independent of association with EDB and at relatively low levels

Question 12

What are the connections between obesity, eating disordered behaviour and body dissatisfaction?

Answer 12

• Prevalence of BD/EDB is higher in obese people than in normal weight people
• People with the most common eating disorder, namely, binge eating disorder, are typically obese
• BD and EDB predict weight gain (not to mention low selfesteem, depression, and poor mental health more generally).
• BD is a potent risk factor for EDB and in community samples there can be a fine line between the two, i.e., when levels of BD are very high likelihood of EDB is very high
• BD and EDB mediate the association between obesity and mental health impairment

Question 13

Describe obesity prevention

Answer 13

• Psychological/behavioural treatments for obesity not brilliant
• Surgical options far and away the most effective treatment for severe obesity but expensive

Question 14

Describe BD/EDB prevention

Answer 14

Some success in controlled trials of targeted interventions in highrisk populations, more recently, universal prevention programs targeting key risk factors such as BD and media literacy