The Relationship Between Obesity and Self-Esteem

INTRODUCTION: Obesity has recently emerged as a major public health concern around the world. Obesity's psychological causes and implications must be well studied before an effective treatment strategy can be developed. The purpose of this study was to look at self-esteem in obese people.
METHODS: The study comprised 71 morbidly obese adults who applied to the Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University hospital's General Surgery Clinic for bariatric surgery between August 2021 and July 2022. The subjects were given the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Morbidly obese respondents' self-esteem and other subscale ratings were compared to those of a healthy, normal-weight control group.
RESULTS: Compared to the healthy controls, the morbidly obese group had poorer self-esteem (z = -3.585; p = 0.001). The obese group had higher levels of daydreaming (z = -2.010; p = 0.044), sad affect (z = -2.237; p = 0.025), and psychosomatic symptoms (z = -2.497; p = 0.013). Depressive affect (r = 0.435 p = 0.001)and psychosomatic symptoms (r = 0.322 p = 0.006) decreased in obese patients as self-esteem increased.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In our study, self-esteem was found to be low in obese patients. Low self-esteem was associated with other psychiatric problems. Our results indicate that while establishing an obesity treatment approach, interventions for psychological issues including low self-esteem and depression should be taken into account in addition to physical issues. Therefore, morbidly obese patients who are referred to the psychiatry clinic for bariatric surgery should undergo a thorough psychological examination in addition to being assessed for their appropriateness for surgery.