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Introduction: Traumatic surgeries resulting in altered body appearance, such ostomy surgery, have been demonstrated to affect the quality of life of those that have undergone such surgery1. However, it would be a mistake to believe that all that have undergone ostomy surgery have poor body image. This study investigates the prevalence of poor body image associated with ostomy surgery in a sample of North American and UK ostomates (n=2,672).
Methods: The data is derived from the Ostomy Comprehensive Health and Life Assessment2; a validated and reliable survey distributed in North America and the United Kingdom. The instrument is a self reported multi-item survey querying major facets of the lives of persons having undergone ostomy surgery.
Results and Discussion: The survey asks two body imaging questions of the ostomates. Cross-tabulating these questions offers insight into the perception of body image by the ostomate. Approximately 17 percent of the respondents associate poor self image with stoma disfigurement, while 21 percent associate poor self image with the stoma changing their appearance. Approximately 36 percent associate a non-negative body perception with the stoma having no effect on appearance. However, negative association categories must be considered with respect to body mass index and gender. For those within normal BMI ranges, no differences in negative perception are noted between genders, however for non-normal ranges BMI differences in negative perceptions are noted between genders.
Conclusions: The published literature contains numerous articles on body image perception in an ostomy population, however this may be the first time that prevalence is documented in a study sufficiently large enough to isolate significant variance components. The study indicates that attempts to quantify poor body image must consider the gender of the respondent and control for body mass index.
Methods: The data is derived from the Ostomy Comprehensive Health and Life Assessment2; a validated and reliable survey distributed in North America and the United Kingdom. The instrument is a self reported multi-item survey querying major facets of the lives of persons having undergone ostomy surgery.
Results and Discussion: The survey asks two body imaging questions of the ostomates. Cross-tabulating these questions offers insight into the perception of body image by the ostomate. Approximately 17 percent of the respondents associate poor self image with stoma disfigurement, while 21 percent associate poor self image with the stoma changing their appearance. Approximately 36 percent associate a non-negative body perception with the stoma having no effect on appearance. However, negative association categories must be considered with respect to body mass index and gender. For those within normal BMI ranges, no differences in negative perception are noted between genders, however for non-normal ranges BMI differences in negative perceptions are noted between genders.
Conclusions: The published literature contains numerous articles on body image perception in an ostomy population, however this may be the first time that prevalence is documented in a study sufficiently large enough to isolate significant variance components. The study indicates that attempts to quantify poor body image must consider the gender of the respondent and control for body mass index.