Knowledge Regarding Obesity Among Freshly Admitted Undergraduate Students of North South University

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a condition of abnormal or excessive fat accumulation in the adipose tissue to the extent that health maybe impaired. Obesity results when the number or size of fat cells in a person’s body increases. A normal sized person has between 30-35 billion fat cells which increase in size and later in number (Adhiambo, L.A,2010). Worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975. In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight. Of these over 650 million were obese. 39% of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight in 2016, and 13% were obese.

METHODS: Using a descriptive cross-sectional study design, 384 freshly admitted undergraduate students were enrolled in the study between May and August 2017. A structured questionnaire was used to interview the participants and to collect data on knowledge on obesity among the students.

RESULTS:  This study included 384 students. It was observed that majority of the participants were male (62%) followed by female (38%). 20-22 years of age group (61.7%) was most frequent age group of the participants. (93.8%) of the respondents were Muslim. Majority of the students showed good awareness state in terms of the factors related with obesity such as pregnancy, family history, hormonal disorders, stress, sleeping behavior, food consumption behavior, sedentary lifestyle and medical drugs, alcohol and smoking consumption, except depression and anxiety which almost 15% of the students showed unawareness state.  Regarding the clinical factors related to obesity, students also showed good awareness state in the areas of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory problems, except cancer and osteoarthritis were the students unaware state was 15.6% and 23.4% respectively.

CONCLUSION: This study reveals that in general, the knowledge about obesity among the freshly admitted undergraduate students of north south university was adequate. It also identified a number of gaps in the area of osteoarthritis, cancer, depression and anxiety with the obesity.

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