Tunisian Women's Perceptions of Desirable Body Size and Chronic Disease Risk

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess attitudes towards body size of urban Tunisian women. Firstly, to determine body size satisfaction amongst women and investigate the body size that women associate with good health, high social status and individual desirability; and secondly, to study whether perception varies in different groups of society, to see if there is a difference of attitudes in younger women and those of higher socioeconomic status. A cross-sectional, population based study was conducted in a peri-urban area of the capital, Tunis with 203 randomly selected women, aged 18–52 years. They were asked to associate 31 items with 1 of 6 photographic silhouettes of different body size; BMI was measured and over half of women were overweight or obese (BMI ≥ 25kg/m²). Almost two-thirds of all women were dissatisfied with their current body size. A normal body size (BMI 20–24 kg/m²) was seen in the most positive light by Tunisian women, although some positive attributes were associated with overweight silhouettes. Obesity was seen as undesirable, associated with greediness and poor health. There was no marked preference by younger women for slimmer body sizes, as had been expected. However, there was a preference by women with higher socioeconomic status for slimmer body sizes for some items. The finding that Tunisian women did not prefer larger body sizes may suggest a preference for a slimmer norm, closer to that in Western societies.

KEYWORDS:

• obesity
• Tunisia
• body size perceptions
• weight satisfaction

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was conducted within the TAHINA project (Epidemiological Transition And Health Impact in North Africa) financed by the European Commission (INCO-MED, FP5) Contract ICA3-CT-2002-10011.