Abstract:

To know the nutritional habits of a society makes possible to intervene with rigor in those factors that can lead to serious health problems, such as anorexia or bulimia. Adolescents are a group of special attention in this field because they suffer many physical changes in just a few years. Currently, the Ecuadorian country does not consider these problems as a public health issue, so there is not a capital grant to deal with them.

This research uses communication strategies to improve the body image of adolescents in the center of the Ecuadorian highlands. 350 High school students responded to a questionnaire about habits, possible eating disorders and the degree of acceptance of body image. Previously, half of them watched various short videos related to these issues as a strategy, followed by a debate about the viewing.
The results showed how the control group had a worse self-image body of themselves compared with the group that attended the proposed communication strategy.

It is concluded that these dynamics could be useful as part of the interventions that should be carried out if someone wants to relieve these problems and improve adolescent's health.

Keywords:

Audiovisual strategy, adolescents, body image, food disorders.