Evaluation of a body height and weight harmony among university students

Abstract

Background and Study Aim. A harmony between the body weight and height is one of the most important sign of the right body composition. The aim of this research was to compare objective and subjective evaluations of the body weight and height correlation by university students. Material and Methods. Students of three years Bachelor programs in the humanistic university were investigated: 137 males in the age of 22.1±1.7 years old, body height – 180.0±7.9 cm, body weight – 79.6±12.3 kg; 281 females in the age of 21.5±2.1 years old, body height – 166.4±6.0 cm, body weight – 59.6±8.9 kg. During the lessons of Physical Education, students were asked to evaluate mentally their body weight value using three categories: normal, overweight, and underweight. A body weight value was evaluated using BMI model too. Correlation between results of these two evaluations was determined using the Pearson interclass correlation coefficient. Results. One way ANOVA showed relatively small differences between BMI values of three studied groups: (p=0.235). Within groups variation was in the medium interval: from V=11.4% in the Nursing group up to 16.6% – in the Physical Education group. Totally for all the participants, Pearson interclass correlation showed moderate significant correlation (r=0.354, p<0.001) between results of the objective as BMI values and subjective evaluations as data received from a special questionnaire. Conclusions. Comparison of the objective evaluation results of body weight by BMI and results of subjective evaluation regarding the body weight were compared vs. results evaluated mentally by students. Subjective evaluated results very good met results obtained from BMI values. Corresponding error appeared negligible small. Statistical hypothesis regarding a common general population these two samples was accepted.