Self-esteem and obesity

Abstract

In the last decade, obesity has spread rapidly, not only in industrialized countries, but also in developing countries. The data from the World Health Organization make this evident, since each year there is an increase that becomes significant, it is also considered that people with obesity are in a complex condition, which can generate social and psychological problems, with effects across all ages and socioeconomic conditions. One of the variables that is involved in psychological problems in people with obesity is self-esteem, since this may be involved in a person’s decision-making for their health care and therefore also their weight condition. Some studies have evaluated the relationship between obesity and self-esteem and how it influences the main emotional attitudes and problems that caused obesity, so in this article a review of scientific articles was carried out to determine how they address the issue of self-esteem and if they relate it to direct effects on obesity, the articles were selected by theme, integrating articles from the years 2017, 2020 and 2021. Finding that in several articles self-esteem was given greater importance as a coping mechanism in a risk situation as is the COVID-9 pandemic and the isolation measures for it.