Application of media literacy intervention to improve self-esteem and body image in female students and their attitudes about self-medication of slimming supplements

Introduction: Self-medication of slimming supplements has increased. The media advertising is involved in this field. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of media literacy educational intervention in the students' self-esteem and body image and their attitudes about self-medication of slimming supplements among the female dormitories in University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study of a controlled type, 98 students were selected by multistage cluster sampling method and randomly divided into two groups of 49 test and 49 control. The data collection instruments were the researcher-made questionnaire about media literacy and an attitude of self-medication of slimming pills, BICI questionnaire of body image and SEI Cooper Smith's questionnaire of self-esteem. Based on the results obtained from the questionnaires early completion, an appropriate educational intervention was designed and carried out. One and three months after the intervention, the data gathered and was analyzed in (16) SPSS software using descriptive and analytical tests. Results: Before the intervention, the mean scores of attitude, body image, self-esteem and dimensions of media literacy in both groups were middle, and there was no significant difference between them. Also, positive correlations were observed in the experiment group between attitude and knowledge (r=0.99, p=0.001), critical thinking (r=0.61, p=0.001) and analysis (r=0.37, p=0.009). One and three months after the intervention, the mean scores of body image, self-esteem, and dimensions of media literacy was observed significantly in the both groups (p<0.05). Conclusion: Media literacy education was effective in promoting the attitude about slimming supplements.

کلیدواژه ها:

Media literacy ، Self-esteem ، Body image ، Attitude ، Slimming supplements