Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Gender differences and prevalence in a Pakistani medical student population

BMC Psychiatry

Table 2 Frequency of reported symptoms in male and female students

RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ADDRESSING SYMPTOMS*	TOTAL (n = 156)	MALES (n = 67)	FEMALES (n = 89)	p-value^§
	%	%	%
Q1. Are you in a habit of compulsive mirror checking or compulsively glancing at your image in reflective surfaces (e.g. windows, doors)?
1. Never	20.5	25.4	16.9	0.419
2. Occasionally to moderately often	56.4	52.2	59.6
3. Very often to extremely often	23.1	22.4	23.6
Q2. Do you compulsively touch your physical "defect"?
1. Never	46.2	46.3	46.1	0.063
2. Occasionally to moderately often	42.9	49.3	38.2
3. Very often to extremely often	10.9	4.5	15.7
Q3. Have you tried to conceal/hide your physical "defect"? (e.g. make up, scarves, clothing, beard)
1. Never	40.4	50.7	32.6	0.057
2. Occasionally to moderately often	44.2	34.3	51.7
3. Very often to extremely often	15.4	14.9	15.7
Q4. Have you ever measured your physical "defect" against people around you?
1. Never	26.9	31.3	23.6	0.153
2. Occasionally to moderately often	54.5	56.7	52.8
3. Very often to extremely often	18.6	11.9	23.6
Q5. Have you ever compared your physical "defect" with people in magazines or on television?
1. Never	23.1	34.3	14.6	0.009
2. Occasionally to moderately often	53.2	41.8	61.8
3. Very often to extremely often	23.7	23.9	23.6
Q6. Do these concerns about your physical "defect" make you avoid doing certain things? (e.g. looking into a mirror, getting photographed, avoiding social gatherings)
1. Never	46.2	46.3	46.1	0.888
2. Occasionally to moderately often	47.4	46.3	48.3
3. Very often to extremely often	6.4	7.5	5.6

* In the questionnaire, each question had 5 graded responses: 1) Never 2) Occasionally 3) Moderately often 4) Very often 5) Extremely often. These 5 responses have been collapsed to 3 to allow better interpretation.
^§ Chi-square was applied here to find significant differences in foci of concern among male and female subjects.

ISSN: 1471-244X