Abstract

GARCIA, Alessandra F. E.; ALMEIDA, Sebastião S.  and  COSTA, Telma Maria B.. How I am, how am I: nutritional status and body image in women submitted to aesthetic plastic surgery. Psicol. teor. prat. [online]. 2019, vol.21, n.2, pp. 336-358. ISSN 1516-3687.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5935/1980-6906/psicologia.v21n2p336-358.

Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (APS) has grown dramatically around the world, especially in Brazil. Women were more dissatisfied with their appearance compared to men, and this is the main predictor for the search of APS. We investigated the body image (BI) and nutritional status (NS) of 40 adult women requesting APS - Clinical Group (G1, n = 20) - and 20 not requesting APS - Comparative Group (G2) - with similar age and socio-educational characteristics. We evaluated the biochemistry of blood, the BMI, and the percentage of body fat, with a statistically significant difference between G1 and G2 (p < 0.01). G1 showed a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity, dissatisfaction with the overall appearance (p = 0.04) in the Body-Self-Relationships Questionnaire, concern with BMI (p = 0.04), and major investment in appearance (p = 0.04). Due to these potential indicators of mental health problems, psychological and nutritional monitoring is essential to prevent poor progression in APS.

Keywords : body image; plastic surgery; nutritional evaluation; nutritional status; biochemical exams.

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