[Nutritional status and perceived body image of elderly women in the Northeast of Brazil].

This paper aims to investigate the association between perceived body image and nutritional status in elderly women. The methodology used was a cross-sectional cohort study of a sample of 265 elderly women aged 60 to 96 and selected by randomized proportional stratification by groups of convenience in the town of Jequié, Bahia, Brazil. Each subject was interviewed in order to obtain information on sociodemographic characteristics (age, marital status, educational level and economic class) and perceived body image (on a nine-silhouette scale) and their body mass and height were measured in order to calculate their Body Mass Index as a parameter of nutritional status. Data analysis employed descriptive statistics, measures of association and non-parametric analysis. A total of 43.8% of the elderly women interviewed were well-nourished, 3.4% were underweight and 52.8% were overweight. With reference to perceived body image, 54% of the women were unsatisfied, primarily due to excess body mass (35.1%), and this was associated with nutritional status, in that increases in BMI raised the percentage of unsatisfied women. The elderly from Bahia were unsatisfied with their body images, and this dissatisfaction was associated with the prevalence of obesity.