Perception of body image of adolescents and of their parents in relation to the nutritional status and blood pressure

The perception of body image of adolescents is an instrument for nutritional assessment to health conditions. Objective: To verify the body image perception of adolescents and their parents in relation to nutritional status and blood pressure levels. Methods: Population-based study, and cross-sectional model, conducted with parents and adolescents aged 10-19 years old, in rural and urban zones in public schools. There was applied the Scale silhouettes for parents about the perception of the described body image and a question about the concern of the nutritional status of their children. There were verified the blood pressure, weight, height and waist circumference, the BMI (kg/m(2)) calculation of the adolescents, and the self-perceived body image. The data was expressed as average +/- standard deviation and percentages. Results: The sample consisted of 914 adolescents with a mean age of 13.12 +/- 2.17 years, 56.8% female and 68.9% were eutrophic. As for blood pressure levels, 17.6% were classified in pre-hypertensive, 18.8% in stage 1 hypertension and 6% in stage 2. About the self-perception, 68% considered themselves being eutrophic and 64.75% of the parents classified their children as eutrophic. There was observed a direct and significant correlation among the body mass index, waist circumference, weight, systemic and diastolic blood pressure with the self-perception of the adolescents and the body image perceptions of the parents (p<0.001). Conclusion: The nutritional status was significantly correlated with blood pressure, waist circumference and body image perceptions of the adolescents and their respective parents.