Association between the alteration of self-perception of nutritional state quality of life and lifestyle: A cross-sectional study from the National Health Survey of Chile 2016-2017

Abstract

Introduction: The alteration of the self-perception of the NS is the discordance between the objective NS according to body mass index (BMI) and its perception. The programs implemented to respond to health promotion and prevention strategies in Chile, as well as nutritional surveillance of the population under the control of the public system, use BMI as an indicator of nutritional status (NS). This study analyzed the association between the alteration of self-perception of NS, quality and lifestyle in Chile.

Methods: Analytical cross-sectional study of secondary data from 5.483 participants of the 2016-2017 National Health Survey (NHS) aged ≥15 years. The NS was determined by BMI and self-perception, and the quality and lifestyles were determined by self-report.

Results: 5.483 participants were included representative of 14,449,868 [95% CI 13.540.101-15.359.635] residing in Chile ≥15 years. We observed that 51% of the population presented discordance of NS, 47% [95%CI 46.96 - 47.04] of the participants with NS mismatch underestimated their NS, and 4.1% [95%CI 3.3 – 5.1] overestimated it. Those who had a concordant perceived NS and objective presented a better perception of quality of life, better compliance with Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG) and performed more physical activity. Men > 30 years and < 8 years of schooling were the factors that most influenced the discrepancy in self-perception of the NS.

Conclusions: The discordance of the NS is associated with worse quality and lifestyle in the Chilean population aged ≥15 years. Therefore, these results suggest the need for greater precision of the indicators used in Chile to assess the NS of the populations.