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Impact of today's media on university student's body image in Pakistan: a conservative, developing country's perspective.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Living in a world greatly controlled by mass media makes it impossible to escape its pervading influence. As media in Pakistan has been free in the true sense of the word for only a few years, its impact on individuals is yet to be assessed. Our study aims to be the first to look at the effect media has on the body image of university students in a conservative, developing country like Pakistan. Also, we introduced the novel concept of body image dissatisfaction as being both negative and positive. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 7 private universities over a period of two weeks in the city of Karachi, Pakistan's largest and most populous city. Convenience sampling was used to select both male and female undergraduate students aged between 18 and 25 and a sample size of 783 was calculated. RESULTS: Of the 784 final respondents, 376 (48%) were males and 408 (52%) females. The mean age of males was 20.77 (+/- 1.85) years and females was 20.38 (+/- 1.63) years. Out of these, 358 (45.6%) respondents had a positive BID (body image dissatisfaction) score while 426 (54.4%) had a negative BID score. Of the respondents who had positive BID scores, 93 (24.7%) were male and 265 (65.0%) were female. Of the respondents with a negative BID score, 283 (75.3%) were male and 143 (35.0%) were female. The results for BID vs. media exposure were similar in both high and low peer pressure groups. Low media exposure meant positive BID scores and vice versa in both groups (p < 0.0001) showing a statistically significant association between high media exposure and negative body image dissatisfaction. Finally, we looked at the association between gender and image dissatisfaction. Again a statistically significant association was found between positive body image dissatisfaction and female gender and negative body image dissatisfaction and male gender (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Our study confirmed the tendency of the media to have an overall negative effect on individuals' body image. A striking feature of our study, however, was the finding that negative body image dissatisfaction was found to be more prevalent in males as compared to females. Likewise, positive BID scores were more prevalent amongst females.

SUBMITTER: Khan AN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3119165 | biostudies-other | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Impact of today's media on university student's body image in Pakistan: a conservative, developing country's perspective.

Khan Amad N AN Khalid Salema S Khan Hussain I HI Jabeen Mehnaz M

BMC public health 20110524

<h4>Background</h4>Living in a world greatly controlled by mass media makes it impossible to escape its pervading influence. As media in Pakistan has been free in the true sense of the word for only a few years, its impact on individuals is yet to be assessed. Our study aims to be the first to look at the effect media has on the body image of university students in a conservative, developing country like Pakistan. Also, we introduced the novel concept of body image dissatisfaction as being both ...[more]

PMID: 21609460

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Project description:The aim of this study was to assess the impact of inherent aspects of body image, eating behavior and perceived health competence on quality of life of university students. Participants completed the instruments Body Shape Questionnaire (reduced version, BSQ-8B), Male Body Dissatisfaction Scale (reduced version, MBDS-R), Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (reduced version, TFEQ-18), Perceived Health Competence Scale (bifactorial version, PHCS-B), World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire-Short Form (WHOQoL-bref) and a questionnaire for characterization of sample. Psychometric properties of instruments were previously evaluated by confirmatory factor analysis. A hypothetical model for each sex was developed and tested. In both model surveys the aspects of the body image (BSQ-8B: body shape concern; MBDS-R: musculature and general body appearance), of eating behavior (TFEQ-18: cognitive restriction, emotional eating, and uncontrolled eating) and of the perceived health competence (PHCS-B: expectations of achieving the desired health results and competence in health behaviors) were used as direct predictors on quality of life (WHOQoL-bref). The variables age, medication use for body change, food supplement use for body change, and body mass index (BMI) were inserted in the aspects of the body image. The variables course shift, initial expectation regarding the course, self-reported performance in the course, concomitant work activities to studies, and economic class were inserted into the quality of life. The model surveys were evaluated using structural equation modeling. A level of significance of 5% was used. A total of 2,198 university students (female = 63.5%), including 1,151 Brazilians and 1,047 Portuguese, participated of study (locally representative samples). The average age of women was 20.8 ± 2.4 years and of men was 21.3 ± 3.3 years. The psychometric properties of the instruments were adequate, except for the PHCS, which was adjusted for each sex. The models presented variance explained of 54% and 49% for women and men, respectively. In both sexes, the students' perceived health competence and academic variables contributed significantly to their quality of life, and age, BMI, and medication and supplement use were significant factors relating to how a student views his or her body image. Women's quality of life was associated with body shape concern and emotional eating aspects. Men's quality of life was associated with general body appearance and cognitive restriction aspects. These results can be used to create and implement educational programs to improve quality of life of university students.

Project description:BackgroundThe main purpose of this study was to review the trends in management of patients presenting with acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP) over the last seven years and its effect on morbidity and mortality.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on all patients presenting with the diagnosis of acute necrotizing pancreatitis to the Aga Khan University Hospital in between the year 2008-2015. The study population was broadly categorized in to two groups based on the way these were managed. The first group consisted of patient who underwent surgery for acute necrotizing pancreatitis while the second group was composed of those patients with necrotizing pancreatitis who were conservatively managed. Patient outcomes were assessed in terms of hospital stay, complication rates and in-hospital mortality. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Comparison of outcomes between two groups was done using chi-square test, Fischer exact test or t-test wherever applicable. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsA total of n = 110 patients were included in the study with 68% (n = 75) males and 32% (n = 35) females. Nasojejunal route was found to be the most commonly utilized route of feeding in these patients consisting of around 49% (n = 54) patients with forty percent (n = 44) tolerating direct oral diet. The outcomes in both these groups in terms of hospital stay, complication rate, and in hospital mortality were not found to be statistically significant. The conservative group however was significant in terms of cost-effectiveness which was shown by a p value of (0.035). The management of this clinically important disease over the years showed an increased trend towards conservative approach in our institute.ConclusionOur study further substantiates the recent global trend of conservative approach towards managing patients with acute necrotizing pancreatitis as reflected in the recent available literature. Therefore surgeons of the developing world need to evolve and adapt to these new measures for better outcomes in patient management.

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Impact of today's media on university student's body image in Pakistan: a conservative, developing country's perspective.

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Impact of today's media on university student's body image in Pakistan: a conservative, developing country's perspective.

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