Correlation Between Body Mass Index (BMI), Body Appreciation Score and Emotional Intelligence in Undergraduate Medical Students

Body appreciation score (BAS) is used to assess the positive attitude towards body image. Individuals with positive image were found to have higher emotional intelligence (EI). Body perception is influenced by the body weight. In this study we proposed to correlate the relationship between BMI, BAS and EI.

It is an observational study. The study population comprised of undergraduate medical students aged between 18–24 years. Subjects on chronic medication for medical illness were excluded. We recruited 100 subjects (male 44, female 56, age 18–21).

A stadiometer was used to measure the height. We measured weight using digital weighing machine. BMI was calculated using Quetelet formula. The BAS2 questionnaire and The Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT) were administered to the participants. They were asked to score each questions on the Likert scale from 1 to 5.

The means of the various parameters between males and females were compared using Student's t-test. There were no statistically significant differences between male and female students in terms of age, BMI, BAS2 and EI. The BAS2 score of different BMI categories were not different. The SSEIQ scores were not statistically different between each BMI categories. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between BMI and BAS 2 score (r =-0.002), BMI and SSEIQ (r = 0.051) and BAS 2 score and SSEIQ (r = 0.19). There was no correlation between the two variables in any of the above cases.

BAS2 score was similar in both males and females of varying BMI. The SSEIQ scores were less for underweight students when compared with students with normal weight. The SSEIQ scores are relatively more in females than males. The BMI, BAS score and EI were not related.