Obesity among adolescent students in private and public schools investigation of awareness: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Aims: The aim of this study was to examine the obesity awareness of adolescent students in private and public schools. Methods: The research is a quantitative study. The research group for the study consisted of 1393 private and public school students between the ages of 10 and 13 in Kırıkkale province. The first stage included a personal information form including questions about gender, age, BMI, socio-economic status, physical activity for half an hour or more per week, and daily food distribution. In the second stage, the Obesity Awareness Scale developed by Allen (2011) and adapted into Turkish by Kafkas and Özen (2014) was used. The scale consists of 3 sub-dimensions and 20 questions. Results: It was observed that there was a significant difference in the anthropometric characteristics, obesity awareness, nutrition and physical activity, BMI, daily food distribution, and socio-economic status groupings of private and public school children. It was seen that there was a significant difference in all other variables and sub-dimensions except body weight, BMI, and obesity total between girls and boys; there was a significant difference in all other variables except anthropometric characteristics of girls in private and public schools; and there was a significant difference in all other variables except the age variable of boys in private and public schools. Conclusion: The anthropometric characteristics, obesity awareness, nutrition and physical activity, BMI, daily food distribution, and socio-economic status of female and male students in private and public schools were significantly different from each other. In private school students, the highest correlation was found between obesity total and socio-economic status, while the lowest correlation was found between obesity total and the physical activity dimension. In public school students, the highest correlation was found between the obesity dimension and BMI, and the lowest correlation was found between the physical activity dimension and socio-economic status.