The relationship between female adiposity and physical attractiveness amongst adults in Ranaka village, Botswana

Abstract

Research undertaken in non-western societies associates body adiposity with attractiveness and wealth. However, there is a dearth of data on perceptions of female attractiveness in relation to adiposity in Botswana. The purpose of this study was therefore to assess the relationship between female body adiposity and physical attractiveness among adults aged 18-50 years from the Botswana culture. This cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 113 randomly selected adults who were stratified for gender and ward in Ranaka village, Botswana. The instruments used in this study were: (i) a questionnaire comprising of two items to elicit information about participants’ socio-demography and their perceptions about female body adiposity; and (ii) 21 soft tissue dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) images that covered seven body fat percentage levels. These images had previously been successfully used to study the role of adiposity and perceptions about physical attractiveness by US college students. In addition, participants’ weight and height were measured and their body mass index (BMI) was also calculated. Data were analyzed using the computer programme Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS version 23 program). The distribution of data was tested using the Kolmogorov- Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests and was presented as counts, percentages, means/medians, standard deviations/interquartile ranges with p values <0.05 representing significant differences. The results showed that overall, overweight and obesity prevalence were higher in women than in men (i.e. 21.5% and 27.7%, respectively versus 8.3% and 2.2%, respectively). The majority of participants used pit toilets. However, they had relatively good housing conditions based on housing structure and access to safe water. Female body size preferences were not differentiated by the socio-demography and anthropometric characteristics of the participants, except the fact that majority of women thought that image 9 (with low WHR=0.61 and BMI=21kg/m2 and a %BF = 32%) was more attractive than their male counterparts (i.e. they gave the image a higher mean score of 6.2 compared to a mean score of 3.8 given by men, p<0.02). More importantly, no clear linear association was seen between the scores chosen by men and women to reflect female attractiveness in relation to BMI or waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). The regression line showed a closer agreement between younger and older women’s choices, than between younger and older men’s choices. These results suggested that Batswana men (to a greater extent, older men) still preferred a bigger body sized woman while Batswana women preferred a thinner body sized woman. Knowledge about this relationship may help in the design and adoption of obesity prevention programmes in Botswana