Abstract
Purpose
This post hoc study aimed to assess the hypothesis that subjects with obesity could underestimate their body size.
Methods
Data from a previous study with different aims were used to compare 22 female inpatients with obesity with 21 healthy-weight women in the size estimation accuracy of their shoulders, waist, and hips circumferences and widths. The body estimation task with an individualized metric methodology was used to collect data. Frequentist and Bayesian analyses were performed.
Results
Samples differed significantly in the accuracy measures of shoulders width and hips as well as waist circumferences: inpatients with obesity underestimated them, while healthy-weight subjects estimated shoulders width accurately but overestimated their hips and waist circumferences. Multiple regression showed that the between-group difference in the accuracy measure of shoulders width was explained by the individuals’ education level, while the difference in the accuracy measure of waist circumference resulted to be independent of both age and education level.
Conclusion
This post hoc study supports the hypothesis that female patients with obesity might underestimate their body size. If these results will be confirmed in future studies, interventions specifically designed to equalize estimations to match the real measures of body size may play a key role in weight-reduction programs for people with obesity.
Level of evidence
Level III, evidence obtained from cohort or case–control analytic studies.
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Funding
This post-hoc study did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for profit sectors.
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Conflict of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest and this post hoc study did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Data were collected in a previous published research investigating the effect of ownership over a virtual body on body size estimation [6]. The dataset analyzed in the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Ethical approval
The original study, from which data for the present post-hoc study were extracted, was conducted in compliance with the Helsinki’s Declaration (of 1975, as revised in 2008) and was approved by the Ethics Review Board of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.
Informed consent
Each participant voluntarily agreeded to participate in the original study and signed a written informed consent including a statement about the possible re-analysis of anonymized data by authorized persons.
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Manzoni, G.M., Rossi, A.A., Granese, V. et al. A post hoc comparison between inpatients with obesity and healthy-weight subjects in the size estimation accuracy of shoulders, waist, and hips widths and circumferences. Eat Weight Disord 27, 3787–3791 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-022-01513-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-022-01513-4