[The association between body mass index and self-assessed symptoms among young women]

Attitudes and behaviours of young women toward dieting and the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and subjective symptoms were studied by a questionnaire survey applied to all the students of a two-year women's college in Sapporo, Hokkaido. The response rate was 96% to yield a total of 608 subjects. 1) Young women showed excessive thinness-oriented attitudes. 2) Over 30 percent of the women reported irregular menstruation, neck pain, fatigue and oversensitiveness to cold. 3) Those who reported oversensitiveness to cold, wearied eyes or stomachache had significantly lower average BMI than those who did not. 4) A U-shaped relationship, with a higher prevalence of complaints of these three symptoms with a low BMI, was shown. Considering these findings, it appears that being excessively thin is related to symptoms and young women's thinness-oriented attitudes are unhealthful.