OBJECTIVE: Adolescence is a crucial life stage that can lead to excess weight and body dissatisfaction. Social inequalities in these issues may have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to analyze the presence of socioeconomic inequalities and their changes in these inequalities stratified by sex in 13- to 19-year-olds in a large Mediterranean city (Barcelona, Spain).
METHODS: Cross-sectional population-based study.
METHODS: We used data from the 2016 and 2021 editions of the FRESC survey, which is a representative citywide survey that captures various aspects of adolescent health. Excess weight was determined by objective body mass index measurements. Body dissatisfaction was defined as the discrepancy between perceived and desired body shape. Socioeconomic status was divided into five pseudo-quintiles by using the Family Affluence Scale. We calculated the corresponding prevalence estimates and fitted robust Poisson regression models to estimate both simple and complex measures of inequality, including relative and absolute differences between the two survey years.
RESULTS: The overall prevalence of excess weight increased from 25.3% [23.9-26.6] to 29.8% [28.2-31.4] between 2016 and 2021. Similarly, body dissatisfaction increased from 44.2% [42.6-45.8] to 60.4% [58.7-62]. Socioeconomic inequalities in excess weight significantly increased in girls (adjusted ratio of the relative index of inequalities = 1.72 [1.08; 2.74] but not in boys. No significant changes were detected in body dissatisfaction in either girls or boys.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight the presence of a sex-specific change in socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent well-being regarding excess weight and body dissatisfaction. These results underscore the need for local public policies to improve social equity in adolescent health.

BACKGROUND: Depressive symptoms are prevalent in adolescents. We aimed to investigate the association between body image and depressive symptoms, and how Body Mass Index (BMI) affects this.
METHODS: Survey data from 2017 with 9963 9th-grade Danish adolescents. Information from the survey about the exposure, body image, was divided into 3 categories: too fat, too thin, and adequate. Depressive symptoms, was measured with Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC4). BMI was categorized as underweight, normal weight and overweight. We used logistic regression and examined for effect modification by sex and BMI and adjusted for self-esteem and bullying.
RESULTS: An association was found between body image and depressive symptoms, when adjusting for BMI, sex, self-esteem, and bullying. The association was strongest for adolescents feeling too fat compared with adolescents feeling adequate OR:1.61(1.45-1.78), for adolescents feeling to thin compared to adequate: OR:1.21 (1.06-1.37). No effect modification by either BMI or sex was found, but those who perceive their bodies in contrast to their reported BMI faced the highest odds of depressive symptoms, and the results were confounded by self-esteem and bullying, that reduced the estimates after adjusting.
CONCLUSIONS: This is a cross-sectional study with limited information regarding drop-out, with risk of selection bias.
CONCLUSIONS: We found an association between negative body image and depressive symptoms among Danish adolescents. This confirms previous studies and is a relevant aspect to adolescents\' mental health, especially the contrast between BMI and perceived body image, and the confounding by self-esteem and bulling, with potential for prevention.

Mobile Dating Applications (MDAs) are integral to young adults\' lives, serving as a platform for romantic and sexual self-presentation during the search for potential partners. Despite its potential link to adverse outcomes including body shame, the prevalence of sexualized self-presentation remains understudied. This pre-registered linkage study addresses this gap by documenting sexualized self-presentation while considering individual differences related to gender, sexual orientation, and body image. Young adults donated MDA (Tinder, Bumble) profile screenshots (nbiographies = 443, npictures = 1277; Mage = 23.15, SD = 2.94; 72.20 % women). Of those 443 participants, 237 additionally completed a body image linkage survey (Mage = 23.36, SD = 2.90; 71.30 % women). Sexualized self-presentation appeared in 4.30 % of biographies and 56.80 % of profile pictures, mainly through sexualized facial expressions. Women, non-heterosexual users, and those holding a more negative body image engaged more in sexualized self-presentation. Platform type and positive body image indicators did not relate to engagement in sexualized self-presentation. Future research is recommended to explore whether the extensive presence of sexualized self-presentations on MDAs impacts users\' personal and relational well-being.

Writing tasks that encourage an appreciation of body functionality can improve women\'s body image and may buffer against negative effects of idealised media exposure. However, no research has examined whether these tasks can serve as a coping strategy after idealised exposure. To this end, young adult women (N = 217, Mage = 21.63) recruited from an Australian university and general community completed a writing task after idealised media exposure, with state body image measures taken at baseline, post-exposure, and post-task. Women were randomly allocated to one of three writing tasks and asked to appreciate their body functionality, to focus on the previously viewed images (rumination), or to describe a frequently travelled route (distraction). Improvements on outcome measures were equally found across both the functionality and distraction condition. Only body appreciation uniquely improved in the functionality condition. The functionality task was rated more helpful but also more challenging. These findings add to the evidence base regarding the usefulness of functionality-based writing tasks for improving women\'s body image. They can offer immediate benefits when experiencing body image distress, as can distraction, and future research should explore their utility in driving more sustained and deeper ways of engaging with one\'s body long-term.

UNASSIGNED: Social media usage carries risks of negative impacts on one\'s perception of physical attractiveness, especially among adolescents who are developing their self-image. These findings suggest that targeted interventions focusing on attention-seeking behaviors may be effective in addressing appearance-related anxieties among adolescents.
UNASSIGNED: We employed Bayesian analysis with Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms on survey data from 11,926 middle school students in China.
UNASSIGNED: Our findings indicate that while the amount of daily social media usage does not significantly correlate with appearance concerns, the desire for social media attention through interactions such as liking, commenting, and sharing shows a clear positive association. Female adolescents exhibit a higher degree of concern about their physical appearance compared to males. Additionally, behaviors aimed at improving perceived physical attractiveness, such as exercising and using skin-whitening products, are positively associated with increased appearance concerns.
UNASSIGNED: These findings suggest that targeted interventions focusing on attention-seeking behaviors may be effective in addressing appearance-related anxieties among adolescents.

BACKGROUND: The benefits of travel for the wellbeing of people of all ages and abilities are well known, though travellers with prostheses have so far been excluded. Limb loss, due to trauma, vascular disease, cancer, or infections requires a prosthesis for cosmesis and functionality. The life-changing event of losing a limb and the considerable psychological adjustment to accept an altered body image influence rehabilitation and self-management as well as the participation in social activities, such as sport and travel. The challenge of travel lies not only in transferring practical impediments encountered at home to another location; familiar coping strategies may require unexpected adjustments. After presenting background information on limb loss and prostheses, the purpose of this paper was to review literature on health advice for travellers with prosthetic limbs.
METHODS: All major data bases were searched for peer-reviewed literature using a variation of keyword combinations around travel and prosthetics. Relevant journals were searched individually, and selected authors and university departments contacted. No evidence-based results were obtained. The search then moved to grey literature including documents from relevant organisations, professional bodies, government websites, manufacturers, airlines, prosthetic/physiotherapy clinics, sport organisations to approaching amputees, including veterans and athletes, directly.
RESULTS: The list of collated travel advice for people with artificial limbs relates to (1) trip preparation, (2) packing (especially considering the mechanical and/or electrical requirements of the prosthesis), (3) travelling by plane as the most covered mode of travel, and (4) navigating airports and airport security, which may be used by travel health practitioners while awaiting evidence-based guidelines.
CONCLUSIONS: This is the first paper on travel with a prosthetic limb in any field, including travel medicine. Therefore, travel health practitioners have no evidence-based guidelines at their disposal required for high-quality care for this neglected population. Preliminary recommendations for clinical practice, advice for required updates in education, and suggestions for urgently needed research are provided to replace current hints and tips with evidence so that travellers with prostheses are no longer \'out on a limb\'.

In addition to describing sexual partner preferences, sexual self-labels in gay and bisexual (henceforth, sexual minority) men, such as top, bottom, and versatile, are associated with psychological characteristics (e.g., gendered personality traits). No research has explored the association between sexual self-labels and eating and body image disturbances in sexual minority men. Research in sexual minority men from China is particularly valuable and needed due to recent rises in rates of eating and body image disturbances and unique, minority-specific stressors experienced by Chinese sexual minority populations. We adopted an online, cross-sectional study in a sample of sexual minority men from China (N = 403; tops, n = 256, bottoms, n = 95, versatiles, n = 52). Bottoms reported higher thinness internalization, lower muscularity internalization, higher body fat dissatisfaction, and higher psychological distress than tops. Bottoms\' weight bias internalization was higher than tops\' and versatiles\' reports and, compared to versatiles, bottoms also reported higher psychosocial impairment related to eating disorder psychopathology. Compared to versatiles, tops reported higher drive for muscularity and muscularity-oriented disordered eating. Adjusting for age, psychological distress, and psychosocial impairment, tops reported higher muscularity internalization than bottoms and higher drive for muscularity and muscularity-oriented disordered eating than both bottoms and versatiles. Findings suggested unique relations between sexual self-labels and eating and body image disturbances in Chinese sexual minority men. Replication and validation of the temporal order between sexual self-labels and eating and body image disturbances is needed, including assessment of social factors (e.g., femmephobia, minority stress) that may help explain the links between sexual self-labels and eating pathology.

OBJECTIVE: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer among women, with over 2.3 million women being diagnosed in 2022. In addition to the emotional and physical toll that comes with a new cancer diagnosis, treatments such as chemotherapies, endocrine therapies, and radiation therapies may cause undesirable side effects. Side effects from cancer treatments can be detrimental to the quality of life of patients and their support systems. This narrative review consolidates current research on the impacts of alopecia on breast cancer survivors and provides a comprehensive overview of the various preventative options and treatments available.
METHODS: Current literature on alopecia and breast cancer was searched using PubMed and Google Scholar. The search strategy utilized a combination of keywords related to breast cancer, alopecia, body image, and alopecia prevention and treatment. Retrievable and English articles from January 2000 to April 2024 were included in the review.
UNASSIGNED: Women with breast cancer cited alopecia, or hair loss, as the third-most undesirable side effect from chemotherapy, only trailing behind nausea and vomiting. Other studies have further supported this notion, expressing that alopecia negatively impacts patients\' body image, social functioning, and sense of self. Further research has indicated that alopecia could hinder individuals from accessing essential cancer therapies. Breast cancer patients use a variety of coping strategies for cancer treatment-induced alopecia, including preventive measures, treatments to accelerate hair regrowth, camouflaging tools, and psychosocial supports.
CONCLUSIONS: Alopecia, as a result of cancer treatment, has many significant and distressing effects on breast cancer patients. Customized interventions may help breast cancer patients feel more comfortable about themselves, after experiencing chemotherapy-induced alopecia. These findings indicate the need for further research on preventative options and treatments for cancer treatment-induced alopecia.

Interpersonal distance (IPD) refers to the distance naturally maintained during social interactions, while peripersonal space (PPS) refers to the immediate space surrounding the body, or the space within reaching distance. Previous research has preliminarily indicated that IPD is associated with body image disturbances. We sought to expand extant literature by exploring associations between aspects of positive and negative body image, IPD, and PPS. Seventy-five women from the United Kingdom aged 18-40 years completed measures of body appreciation, body image flexibility, body shame, body surveillance, and body dissatisfaction. IPD boundaries were estimated using a lab-based comfort-distance task, whereas PPS boundaries were estimated using an audio-tactile reaction-time task. Measures of body acceptance by others and fear of negative evaluation were completed as potential mediators. Overall, we identified positive associations between IPD, body surveillance, and fear of negative evaluation, with no statistically significant associations identified between the other indices. The association between active IPD and body surveillance was mediated by fear of negative evaluation, even after controlling for demographic factors. These findings suggest a nuanced relationship between IPD and body image-related factors, highlighting the role of social evaluation anxiety. Future investigations should use experimental designs to further understand these relationships and their implications.

Our mental representation of our body depends on integrating various sensory modalities, such as tactile information. In tactile distance estimation (TDE) tasks, participants must estimate the distance between two tactile tips applied to their skin. This measure of tactile perception has been linked to body representation assessments. Studies in individuals with fibromyalgia (FM), a chronic widespread pain syndrome, suggest the presence of body representation distortions and tactile alterations, but TDE has never been examined in this population. Twenty participants with FM and 24 pain-free controls performed a TDE task on three Body regions (upper limb, trunk, lower limb), in which they manually estimated the interstimuli distance on a tablet. TDE error, the absolute difference between the estimation and the interstimuli distance, was not different between the Groups, on any Body region. Drawings of their body as they felt it revealed clear and frequent distortions of body representation in the group with FM, compared to negligible perturbations in controls. This contrast between distorted body drawings and unaltered TDE suggests a preserved integration of tactile information but an altered integration of this information with other sensory modalities to generate a precise and accurate body representation. Future research should investigate the relative contribution of each sensory information and prior knowledge about the body in body representation in individuals with FM to shed light on the observed distortions.