Correlation between Actual versus Perceived Body Mass Index using a 3D Avatar on Female Football and Rugby Athletes

Introduction: The pressures of body image can be considered as demoralising, especially within the female sporting environment, where female athletes often express the greatest number of negative thoughts and feelings towards their own body shape, appearance, and dissatisfaction. Research surrounding body image, body composition and body mass index (BMI) has shown that when participants use visual impressions, for perceived body image (PBI) they have failed to produce realistic images and often lacked body stimuli with realistic weight manipulations (Madrigal, 2000). To portray more realistic statistically probable weight manipulations of a personalised stimuli, a 3D Avatar can be used to establish how female athletes perceive their body image. Therefore, the main objective of this investigation is to determine the correlation between actual and perceived BMI using a 3D Avatar within female athletes. Method:n =18 female participants between the ages of 18–23 years of age and competing in football and rugby at club and university level were recruited. Stretched stature (m) and body mass (kg) were taken and values used to calculate actual (kg/m²) and perceived BMI. A computer generated (Unity Player) 3D Avatar, with a visual slide from an underweight to average to obese continuum, was used to assess participants perceived BMI. P value was set at < 0.05 and a Paired Student t-Test was used to test for the difference. A Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient was then used to test the strength of the correlation between the actual and perceived BMI. Results: Actual BMI ranged from 19.5 - 36.9 (x̄ 25.1 ± 4.7), whereas the perceived BMI ranged from 23.2 - 30.8 (x̄ 26.7 ± 2.6). A Paired Student t–test set at P < 0.05 suggested a significant difference between actual and perceived BMI (P = 0.023), and a Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient test confirmed a strong correlation of r = 0.875. Conclusion: Results indicated that perceived BMI was higher than the participants actual BMI and suggested that female athletes competing in football and rugby have a large amount of body dissatisfaction.