Abstract
Objective: To examine the mediating role of body
image concern between obesity and sexual satisfaction
and to test the invariance across health status.
Methodology: A Sample of 307 married women was
collected through a purposive sampling with the age
range of 20 – 50 years. They were divided into women
with PCOS (n = 141) and normal women (n = 166).
We used Sexual Satisfaction Scale for Womenand
Body Image Concern Inventoryto measure sexual
satisfaction and body perception, respectively.The
BMI wascategorized into three groups as normal
weight (18.5 to 24.99), over weight (25 to 29.99) and
obese (> 30).
Results: The structural model of sexual satisfaction
revealed a significant mediating role of body image
concern between obesity and sexual satisfaction. This
model was also tested across health status, which was
variant.
Conclusion: BMI negatively influenced the body
image of women which in turn lead to a low level of
sexual satisfaction. Married women diagnosed with
PCOS were less sexually satisfied due to their weight
and high body image concern as compared to normal
married women.
Keywords: Body mass index (BMI), body image
concern, sexual satisfaction, PCOS.
