Many young people, especially girls, have an inaccurate perception of their body, health officials and specialists said at a conference in Taipei yesterday.
A Taiwan Youth Health Survey published last year by the Bureau of Health Promotion said about a quarter of Taiwan’s youths from grades seven through nine are overweight or obese. Being overweight and obese are also more commonly found in males, at 29.6 percent, than females, at 18.4 percent.
The survey sampled 4,444 junior high students from 60 schools and 134 classes across the country.
The results showed that 40 percent of girls and boys who have a normal body mass index (BMI) believed they were overweight, said Hurng Baai-shyun (洪百薰), director of the bureau’s Population and Health Research Center.
What’s more, almost half of all those who are underweight think they are too heavy, she said.
“More girls than boys feel they are overweight … Girls are generally more dissatisfied with their body than boys,” she said. “Students expect their body weight to be lower than what is considered to be ideal. This phenomenon is more prevalent in girls than boys.”
Hurng said that 31.8 percent of girls with a normal BMI thought they were overweight, compared with 14.4 percent of boys.
Taiwanese youths are in need of an adjustment in the perceptions of their body image, said Edwin Yen (晏涵文), a professor at National Taiwan Normal University’s Department of Health Promotion and Health Education.
Yen said that just like sex education, health education in Taiwan starts too late.
“Body image adjustment must start in elementary school,” he said, adding that health education and sex education go hand-in-hand.
RSS