Knowledge, attitude, and practice of obesity among university students

Abstract

Background: Obesity, as an epidemic disease, is distributed among all age groups, including children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. The goal of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) concerning obesity among university students.Methods: In total, 1,317 questionnaires were filled out by 1,317 (466 male and 851 female) randomly selected students aged range from 16 to 24. All participants agreed to provide personal information in this study. A self-designed questionnaire was applied to collect demographic characteristics and assess the KAP of obesity. Gender, height, weight, grade, sleep and income were included in the population questionnaire.Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the respondent rate of KAP among students.Results: In the survey, 64.9% of respondents believed that obesity was a disease. Only a few people cared about their body shape. Most of the participants in the study had practices that were detrimental to their health, including irregular dieting (52.9%), surfing the internet, and playing games (58.5%) in their spare time.Conclusions: This study identified that lacking knowledge of obesity was common among college students. Most respondents had a positive attitude about preventing obesity by focusing on dieting and exercise. Thus, education related to obesity should be strengthening among university students to translate attitude into practice.

Current knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) towards physical activity (PA) and its impact on obesity management in Bangladesh: A cross‐sectional study

“…From the responses received, 33.9% stated that, they consumed frequent snacks, 36.8% believed that, they had a typical body shape, and 44.6% desired to reduce their weight to remain physically fit. This study also showed that, most participants had a comparatively negative attitude towards PA in obesity management, which is a bit consistent with the present study 23 …”

Research on the Relationship between Physical Literacy, Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior

“…However, college students’ dietary patterns, physical activity, as well as sedentary and other unhealthy lifestyle behaviors have coexisted and interacted with each other, thus increasing the risk of being overweight and obese, and being obese leads to a further decline in physical activity level [ 11 ]. There is also a general lack of awareness about obesity among college students, which increases the risk of obesity [ 12 ]. Clearly, a lack of exercise and obesity are major public health challenges.…”

Obesity Awareness and its Relationship to Sociodemographic Characteristics of Filipino Adults: A Survey among Work-From-Home Employees in Metro Cebu, Philippines

“…The results in other countries are polarized with studies in China, Pakistan and India revealing cohorts who were knowledgeable on the core principles of obesity while studies done in the USA and United Kingdom (UK) showed otherwise. [14][15][16][17]20 The item that the respondents were most aware of is that BMI is a diagnostic tool for obesity. This is because BMI is commonly used and is regarded as the most useful population-level measure of overweight and obesity.…”

“…Several studies involving students, employees and the general population revealed that these cohorts have ample knowledge on the basic concepts of obesity, specifically its risk factors. [14][15][16] However, one study highlighted the public's unawareness on the link of obesity to cancer. 17 Majority were also unfamiliar about treatment options and most do not try to prevent themselves from becoming obese.…”