Trends in body image of adolescent females in metropolitan and non-metropolitan regions: a longitudinal study

BMC Public Health

Table 5 Frequencies (and percentages) of responses to the question ‘Are you on a diet?: by region within grade level within year

Year	Grade level at recruitment	Region	‘Not on a diet because I don’t need to lose weight’		‘Yes, I’m on a diet’		‘Not on a diet but needing to lose weight’		Total
Year	Grade level at recruitment	Region	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
2008	7	Metropolitan	245	69.0	18	5.1	92	25.9	355	100.0
	7	Non-metropolitan	79	65.3	5	4.1	37	30.6	121	100.0
	11	Metropolitan	84	38.4	52	23.7	83	37.9	219	100.0
	11	Non-metropolitan	49	53.8	17	18.7	25	27.5	91	100.0
2009	7	Metropolitan	184	59.7	30	9.7	94	30.5	308	100.0
	7	Non-metropolitan	54	55.1	5	5.1	39	39.8	98	100.0
	11	Metropolitan	62	51.2	17	14.0	42	34.7	121	100.0
	11	Non-metropolitan	43	62.3	9	13.0	17	24.6	69	100.0
2010	7	Metropolitan	137	55.2	34	13.7	77	31.0	248	100.0
	7	Non-metropolitan	43	53.1	5	6.2	33	40.7	81	100.0
	11	Metropolitan	35	50.0	11	15.7	24	34.3	70	100.0
	11	Non-metropolitan	25	55.6	4	8.9	16	35.6	45	100.0
Total			1040	57.0	207	11.3	579	31.7	1826	100.0

Note: Statistically significant main effects for year (Wald Chi-Square (2) = 15.020, p = 0.001) and grade level (Wald Chi-square (1) = 10.001, p = 0.002) but not for region in comparison between participants on a diet and those who were not on a diet because their weight was fine. There were no significant interactions
Statistically significant main effect was found for grade level (Wald Chi-Square (1) = 5.948, p = 0.015), but not for year, nor for region, in comparison between those on a diet compared to those who were not on a diet but did need to lose weight. There were no significant interactions

ISSN: 1471-2458