Relationship between psychosocial variables and perceived health

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyse the relationships among physical self-concept, body image, body mass index and physical activity and perceived health. The sample was composed of 518 subjects between 19.4 and 49.7 years of age (M = 30.79 years old; SD = 9.24), of whom 301 were female (58.1%) and 217 male (41.9%). The results show that the subjects who showed a better physical self-concept were healthier than the subjects who had a low physical self- concept and believed that their health was not good. Bearing in mind the multiple logistic regression, the results show that physical self-concept is significantly related to the perception of health in females and males. In females, two subdomains - physical condition and attractiveness - are related to perception of health.