Page No: 203-210.
Pooja, Amrita Yadava, and Nov Rattan Sharma
Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak
Deviations in body weight at both extreme ends of the continuum are a world-wide
health issue and the incidence is reaching alarming proportions. Societal changes have
resulted in a shift towards less physically demanding, more passive leisure pursuits,
increasing urbanization, and unrealistic notions of anatomical “perfection”, which have
led to the prevalence of deviations in body mass. Several life threatening problems are
associated with deviations in body weight along with many non-fatal but debilitating
health problems. The present research was planned to study cognitive functioning
in relation to body mass index – a measure of body adiposity. A single phase multigroup design was employed. A sample of 230 adult healthy females was divided into
fi ve groups on the basis of their BMI (Gr I:< 18. 5; Gr II: 18.5-22.9; Gr III: 23-24.9; Gr IV: 25-29.9; Gr V:> 30).Height and Weight of respondents were obtained in order to
calculate Body Mass Index. Measures of cognitive functioning (Reaction Time, Digit
Symbol Test, Stroop Color test, Paired Association test, Visual Reproduction test and
Ascending Digit task) were administered. The scores were analyzed statistically by
using descriptive statistics, ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD. The results revealed signifi cant
differences among the fi ve BMI groups on all cognitive functioning except for Paired
associates. Performance of the deviant BMI groups was signifi cantly poorer on almost
all measures of cognitive function in comparison to the normal BMI groups except on
working memory (Ascending Digit task). The present results indicate that BMI could be
used as an index for prediction of cognitive functioning