Relationship between body appreciation, mental health and academic stress in medical science students in Cuba
Keywords:
Body appreciation; BAS-2; Students; GAD-7; PHQ-9; Mental healthAbstract
Introduction: Medical training imposes demands that compromise mental health. Body appreciation emerges as a protective construct that is underexplored in socially focused medical education contexts.
Objective: To evaluate the relationship between body appreciation, mental health, and academic stress in Cuban medical students.
Methods: An observational, analytical, and cross-sectional study was conducted with 250 students from 15 Cuban medical universities (September 2025). Validated instruments were used: Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and a perceived academic stress scale. The analysis included non-parametric statistics (Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test) and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (ρ).
Results: High body image (21.5 ± 3.7) and levels of subclinical symptoms (Anxiety: 6.9 ± 4.6; Depression: 6.4 ± 5.3) were observed. No significant differences were found by gender (p=0.439) or year of study (p=0.835). Body image showed significant inverse correlations with anxiety (ρ=-0.273), depression (ρ=-0.334), and academic stress (ρ=-0.229) (p<0.001). No association was found with Body Mass Index (p=0.913).
Conclusions: Body image among Cuban health sciences students is high and acts as a resilient psychological resource. Cuban medical training appears to mitigate gender gaps in body perception. It is recommended that strengthening positive body image be integrated into student wellness programs to mitigate academic stress.
Downloads
References
1. Estrada-Araoz EG. Salud mental y satisfacción con la vida en estudiantes universitarios: Un estudio correlacional. Gac Med Caracas [Internet]. 2024 [citado 2025 Oct 13];132 (Supl.1). Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.47307/gmc.2024.132.s1.17
2. Nunes JCA, Oliveira Lima Magalhães D, Vitória Silva Rodrigues A, Nami Utsunomya Saraiva A, Pereira de Jesus EC, de Oliveira Santos EK, et al. Prevalence of depressive symptoms, anxiety, suicidal ideation and associated factors among higher education students. HS [Internet]. 2024 [citado 2025 Oct 13];4(01):01–20. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.51249/hs.v4i01.1804
3. Martinez-Lorca M, Zabala Baños MC, Morales Calvo S, Aguado Romo R, Martínez-Lorca A. Salud mental, afecto y emociones en estudiantes universitarios españoles de Ciencias de la Salud y Ciencias Sociales (Mental Health, affect and emotions in Spanish university students of Health and Social Sciences). Retos Digit [Internet]. 2023 [citado 2025 Oct 13];49:163–73. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.47197/retos.v49.97652
4. García Barragán JA, Santos Pazos DA. Insatisfacción con la imagen corporal y salud mental en estudiantes universitarios: Una revisión sistemática. Arandu [Internet]. 2025 [citado 2025 Oct 13];12(1):2100–18. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.69639/arandu.v12i1.729
5. Gállego-Royo A, Pérez-Álvarez C, Marco-Gómez B, Sebastián Sánchez I, Astier-Peña MP, Urbano Gonzalo O, et al. Los problemas de salud más prevalentes en los estudiantes de Medicina: revisión de la literatura. Educ médica [Internet]. 2023 [citado 2025 Oct 13];24(1):100774. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.edumed.2022.100774
6. Inzunza Rosales E, Díaz Tapia C, Valenzuela Manríquez E, Gutiérrez Vergara Y, Baier Riquelme B, Molina-Márquez I, et al. Autopercepción e insatisfacción de la imagen corporal con relación al IMC y porcentaje de grasa entre hombres y mujeres estudiantes universitarios chilenos. MHSALUD [Internet]. 2023 [citado 2025 Oct 13];20(1):1–10. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.15359/mhs.20-1.8
7. Tylka TL, Linardon J, Wood-Barcalow NL, Daníelsdóttir S, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz M. Short forms of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2SF): Item selection and psychometric evaluation. Body Image [Internet]. 2022 [citado 2025 Oct 13];41:308-30. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.04.001
8. Johnson SU, Ulvenes PG, Øktedalen T, Hoffart A. Psychometric properties of the general anxiety disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scale in a heterogeneous psychiatric sample. Front Psychol [Internet]. 2019 [citado 2025 Oct 13];10:1713. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01713
9. Kroenke K. PHQ-9: global uptake of a depression scale. World Psychiatry [Internet]. 2021 [citado 2025 Oct 13];20(1):135–6. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/wps.20821
10. Porras Pérez BN, Travieso Ramos N, Herrera Miranda GLHM, Suárez García LR. Management of the methodological teaching work in the cuban medical university. Health Leadership and Quality of Life [Internet]. 2024 [citado 2025 Oct 13];3. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.56294/hl2024.457
11. Declaración de Helsinki de la AMM – Principios éticos para las investigaciones médicas con participantes humanos [Internet]. Wma.net. [citado 2025 Oct 13]. Disponible en: https://www.wma.net/es/policies-post/declaracion-de-helsinki-de-la-amm-principios-eticos-para-las-investigaciones-medicas-en-seres-humanos/
12. Rivera Mora LF, Gaibor Gonzalez MI. Trastorno dismórfico corporal en los estudiantes de la carrera de enfermería de la Universidad Estatal de Bolívar. facsalud [Internet]. 2024 [citado 2025 Oct 13];8(15):114–21. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.29076/issn.2602-8360vol8iss15.2024pp114-121p
13. Belarmino V, Trassantes AO, Prietsch SO, Gonçalves CV. Insatisfação com a Imagem Corporal em Universitários do Extremo Sul do Brasil. Saúde Desenvolv Hum [Internet]. 2023 [citado 2025 Oct 13];11(2). Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.18316/sdh.v11i2.9488
14. Villodres GC, Campos-Pérez LM, Salvador-Pérez F, Muros JJ, Vizcaíno-Cuenca R. Relación entre el uso de redes sociales, hábitos saludables y factores psicológicos relacionados con la percepción de la imagen corporal en estudiantado universitario. Retos Digit [Internet]. 2025 [citado 2025 Oct 13];71:316–32. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.47197/retos.v71.114780
15. Maddalena N de CP, Lucchetti ALG, Moutinho ILD, Ezequiel O da S, Lucchetti G. Mental health and quality of life across 6 years of medical training: A year-by-year analysis. Int J Soc Psychiatry [Internet]. 2024 [citado 2025 Oct 13];70(2):298–307. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00207640231206061
16. Reyes-Castillo G, Guzmán-Toledo RM, Rojas-Solís JL, Fragoso-Luzuriaga R. Factores protectores ante el estrés académico, ansiedad y depresión en universitarios: Un estudio post confinamiento. Revista AJAYU [Internet]. 2025 [citado 2025 Oct 13];23(1):19–40. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.35319/ajayu.231266
17. Linardon J, McClure Z, Tylka TL, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz M. Body appreciation and its psychological correlates: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Body Image [Internet]. 2022 [citado 2025 Oct 13];42:287–96. Disponible en: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.07.003
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Christian José Arencibia-Pagés, Yayné Pérez-Valdés, Circe Pagés-Rubio, Arleen María Abreu-Cervantes, Orlando Bismark Rodríguez-Salazar
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Those authors who have publications with this journal accept the following terms: The authors will retain their copyright and guarantee the journal the right of first publication of their work, which will be simultaneously subject to the Recognition License. Creative Commons that allows third parties to share the work as long as its author and its first publication in this magazine are indicated. Authors may adopt other non-exclusive license agreements for the distribution of the published version of the work (e.g.: deposit it in an institutional telematic archive or publish it in a monographic volume) as long as the initial publication in this journal is indicated. Authors are allowed and recommended to disseminate their work through the Internet (e.g.: in institutional telematic archives or on your website) before and during the submission process, which can produce interesting exchanges and increase citations of the published work.
