Mediterranean diet and attitude aspects of body image in adolescents

Abstract

Background: Adolescence is a stage that is characterized by many changes, having great importance the food and the acceptance of your own body. Objetive: To evaluate the adherence to the mediterranean diet (DM) and body image in Sevillian adolescents; determine the relationship between both variables with the BMI and waist circumfeence, compare the differences between sexo and school year. Method: Descriptive, cross-sectional study of 164 adolescents (70 girls and 94 boys) between 12 and 17 years old. Adherence to MD was assessed using the KIDMED Test and body dissatisfaction through the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ). Results: Adherence to MD was médium-high (50.6% and 47.6%) without significant differences between sexes. 82.9% of the total sample did not show body insatisfaction. Significant associations were found between age and waist circumference and BMI and waist circumference. However, There was no relationship between MD and body dissatisfaction or with any anthropometric measure. Conclusions: Adolescents have a médium-high adherence to MD, without presenting the majority of body dissatisfaction. Moderate DM data warn of the importance of planning and evaluating intervention programs, in order to seek improvements.