Australian tertiary students’ attitudes towards youth obesity in educational institutions

Abstract

Educational institutions have been identified as ideal locations to implement health promotion strategies that aim to prevent and treat youth obesity. However, the tertiary training of future health promoters currently lacks health and nutrition instruction. This study sought to investigate attitudes towards youth obesity and perceptions of the roles of schools and educators in strategies to treat and prevent youth obesity. Participants ( n = 155) were tertiary students who enrolled in a general-level health and nutrition elective that housed an intervention to increase awareness of obesity. Baseline and post-intervention responses to the Perceptions of Youth Obesity and Health Education questionnaire were collected and compared spanning the 12 weeks. Agreement that health is linked to being of normal weight and that general educators should have a major role in school strategies did not waver over the course of the intervention. The belief that schools are ideal places for obesity prevention strategies was higher at baseline than post-intervention. It was desired that obesity awareness would increase but perceived importance of involvement of school staff in youth obesity strategies did not increase. Further research is required to investigate the influence of attitudes and perceptions held by future health promoters towards their roles in prevention and treatment strategies on professional practice.