Adolescent Girls Insight on Prevention and Management of Obesity

Abstract

Background of the Study: Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. A crude population measure of obesity is the body mass index (BMI), a person’s weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of his or her height (in metres). A person with a BMI of 30 or more is generally considered obese. A person with a BMI equal to or more than 25 is considered overweight. Obesity result from increased caloric intake that consistently exceeds caloric requirements. Change in life style practices including increasing consumption of oily, junk food, decreased physical activities, watching and playing video games for prolonged duration etc. are the most important factors in causing childhood obesity. Aim and Objectives: The aim of the study is to assess the knowledge of adolescent girls on prevention and management of obesity in selected schools. Approach and Design: The descriptive study approach was used. Sampling and Sampling Criteria: Simple Random Probabality sampling technique was used to select 120 adolescent girls from selected schools at Mysuru. Tools and Technique: Structured knowledge questionnaire was used to collect the data. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Result: Result revealed that majority 50(41.66%) adolescent girls had average knowledge, 40(33.33%) girls had good knowledge and 30(25%) girls had poor knowledge. Chi-square analysis revealed that the knowledge and personal variables are not significantly associated with their selected personal variables like age, class of studying, source of information and familial history of obesity. Conclusion: It was concluded that, adolescent girls have average knowledge; hence the knowledge was reinforced by providing information pamphlet to the adolescent girls that contains essential information regarding the causes, consequences, prevention and management of obesity.