Evaluation on the Body Perception and Eating Attitudes of High School Students in Karaman City Center

Body structure of the individual is very different from the ideal body structure that she imagines, body dissatisfaction can be observed. It was determined that accepting thinness as a beauty criterion and the idea of "the more weight I give the more beautiful I become" cause the adoption of wrong eating attitudes and behaviors. The prevalence and frequency of eating disorders which are identified as "important medical condition" requiring "medical attention" by the World Health Organization (WHO) increase gradually among youth. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the body perception and eating attitudes of high school students in Karaman city center. The population of research made between December 2014 and February 2015 is constituted by 21 schools of Karaman city center. In total, 389 people were included in research. 254 female students and 135 male students made up the participants of the study. At schools, questionnaire forms were distributed to the students during the interview. At the same time, the students were requested to fill in the forms. Afterwards, their height and weight were measured and written in the questionnaire forms. In brief, the individuals who participated in the study voluntarily were requested to fill in the questionnaire containing demographic information, food habits and dieting status, and Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-40 scale) and body perception scale. In the study, body perception score values of male students are quite higher than those of female students (p=0.0001). Furthermore, body perception scores of the different schools have similar distribution and there is no statistically significant difference (p=0.106). Mean body perception scores of the high school students differ statistically according to their classes (p=0.009). On the other hand, there is no statistical difference in the education levels of the parents, ages, BMI groups of the students and Body Perception scores. There are statistically significant differences in body perception score values of the students according to criterion of how they see themselves, their balanced diet perception and skipping meal criterion With regard to Eating Attitude criteria, 81.7%, 10.5% and 7.7% of high school students in the study are at Low-Risk group, Moderate-Risk group and High-Risk xii group, respectively. When the relationship between the risk of eating disorder and genders are analyzed, Eating Attitude scores of male students are quite lower than those of the female students (p=0.007). Besides, there are statistically significant differences in Eating Attitude scores between the schools in the study (p=0.017). Mean Eating Attitude score values of the students, except the ones in Medical Vocational High School do not differ statistically according to their classes. In addition, there is no statistically significant difference in ages of the students, education level of their parents and their BMI scores between Eating Attitude scores of the students (p=0.237; p=0.384). It was found out that there is a relationship between eating attitude and body perception. The students should be informed about the adequate and balanced nutrition through organizing seminars of dietetics at schools at certain and regular intervals by experts.