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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2011

Open Access 01-12-2011 | Research article

Mental health impairment in underweight women: do body dissatisfaction and eating-disordered behavior play a role?

Authors: Jonathan Mond, Bryan Rodgers, Phillipa Hay, Cathy Owen

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2011

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Abstract

Background

We sought to evaluate the hypothesis that mental health impairment in underweight women, where this occurs, is due to an association between low body weight and elevated levels of body dissatisfaction and/or eating-disordered behaviour.

Methods

Subgroups of underweight and normal-weight women recruited from a large, general population sample were compared on measures of body dissatisfaction, eating-disordered behaviour and mental health.

Results

Underweight women had significantly greater impairment in mental health than normal-weight women, even after controlling for between-group differences in demographic characteristics and physical health. However, there was no evidence that higher levels of body dissatisfaction or eating-disordered behaviour accounted for this difference. Rather, underweight women had significantly lower levels of body dissatisfaction and eating-disordered behaviour than normal-weight women.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that mental health impairment in underweight women, where this occurs, is unlikely to be due to higher levels of body dissatisfaction or eating-disordered behaviour. Rather, lower levels of body dissatisfaction and eating-disordered behaviour among underweight women may counterbalance, to some extent, impairment due to other factors.
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Metadata
Title
Mental health impairment in underweight women: do body dissatisfaction and eating-disordered behavior play a role?
Authors
Jonathan Mond
Bryan Rodgers
Phillipa Hay
Cathy Owen
Publication date
01-12-2011
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2011
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-547

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