Agreement between nutritional status and perception of body image in indigenous Khisêdjê of the Xingu Indigenous Park

To determine the agreement between body self-image (based on the Stunkard figure rating scale) and nutritional status and to evaluate body satisfaction among the Khisêdjê indigenous people of Parque Indígena do Xingu (Xingu Indigenous Park).A cross-sectional study involving 131 natives aged 20 and older. Data on body image, body mass index and waist circumference were collected. Kappa statistics, χ2 (p0.05), crude and adjusted prevalence ratios and Student's t-test were used for data analysis.The prevalence of overweight and obesity was respectively 42 and 5.3%. The percentage of satisfaction with body profile was 61.8% with no difference between the sexes. There was good agreement between actual and ideal self-image (p0.001), but poor agreement between actual and ideal self-image with nutritional status for both sexes. A higher prevalence of body dissatisfaction due to overweight was detected in individuals with central obesity and overweight.The results suggest that body self-image evaluated by the Stunkard silhouette scale has little applicability as an indicator of nutritional status among the indigenous Khisêdjê of Xingu Indigenous Park.