Table 2.
Characteristics of middle-aged and older women with and without body weight dissatisfaction
| Women aged 50–64 years | Women aged 65–75 years | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dissatisfied | Satisfied | P-value1 | Dissatisfied | Satisfied | P-valuea | |
| N | 134 | 163 | 58 | 113 | ||
| Weight loss desire (%) | ||||||
| Yes | 96⋅3 % | 22⋅1 % | <0·001 | 89·7 % | 14·2 % | <0·001 |
| No | 3·7 % | 77·9 % | 10·3 % | 85·8 % | ||
| Dieting (%) | ||||||
| Yes (currently or in the last year) | 21·6 % | 7·4 % | <0·001 | 17·2 % | 2·7 % | 0·001 |
| No | 78·4 % | 92·6 % | 82·8 % | 97·3 % | ||
| Body Mass Index (BMI, kg/m2) | ||||||
| Median [P25–P75] | 27·2 [24·0–30·7] | 21·8 [20·5–23·4] | <0·001 | 27·7 [25·8–30·8] | 23·0 [21·0–24·7] | <0·001 |
| BMI categories (%) | ||||||
| Underweight (BMI <20 kg/m2) | 1·5 % | 17·8 % | <0·001 | 0·0 % | 13·3 % | <0·001 |
| Normal (20 ≤ BMI < 25 kg/m2) | 31·3 % | 67·5 % | 17·2 % | 63·7 % | ||
| Overweight (25 ≤ BMI < 30 kg/m2) | 35·1 % | 13·5 % | 46·6 % | 20·4 % | ||
| Obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) | 32·1 % | 1·2 % | 36·2 % | 2·7 % | ||
| Abdominal obesity (%) | ||||||
| Waist-to-hip ratio ≥ 0·85 | 38·8 % | 6·7 % | <0·001 | 47·4 % | 15·0 % | <0·001 |
| Waist-to-hip ratio < 0·85 | 61·2 % | 93·3 % | 52·6 % | 85·0 % | ||
| Snacking (number of snacks/day) | ||||||
| Median [P25–P75] | 2·0 [1·0–2·6] | 1·4 [1·0–2·0] | 0·109 | 1·0 [0·3–2·0] | 1·0 [1·0–2·0] | 0·385 |
| Skipping breakfast ≥ 4 out of 7 days (%) | ||||||
| Yes | 14·2 % | 11·0 % | 0·415 | 6·9 % | 1·8 % | 0·085 |
| No | 85·8 % | 89·0 % | 93·1 % | 98·2 % | ||
| Self-reporting health status (%) | ||||||
| Bad and very bad | 1·5 % | 0·0 % | <0·001 | 1·7 % | 1·8 % | 0·009 |
| Medium | 23·9 % | 4·9 % | 20·7 % | 14·2 % | ||
| Good | 50·7 % | 55·2 % | 67·2 % | 53·1 % | ||
| Very good | 23·9 % | 39·9 % | 10·3 % | 31·0 % | ||
| Nationality (%) | ||||||
| Swiss | 92·5 % | 91·4 % | 0·723 | 96·6 % | 97·3 % | 0·771 |
| Foreigner | 7·5 % | 8·6 % | 3·4 % | 2·7 % | ||
| Education: Highest degree (%) | ||||||
| Only mandatory school or no degree | 9·7 % | 3·1 % | 0·048 | 3·4 % | 6·2 % | 0·586 |
| Secondary (e.g. apprenticeship) | 58·2 % | 58·9 % | 70·7 % | 63·7 % | ||
| Tertiary (e.g. university) | 32·1 % | 38·0 % | 25·9 % | 30·1 % | ||
Values in bold indicate statistically significant results.
a
Differences between dissatisfied and satisfied women assessed by χ2 test, respectively, Fisher's exact test (categorical variables), Mann–Whitney U test (ordinal and continuous variables).