A study to assess knowledge and perception on obesity among female aged eighteen years and above living in ladies dorm at UEAB, Kenya

Abstract

Background: Obesity is an ongoing problem in the developed countries and it’s a new and growing problem in the developing countries. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and perception on obesity among female aged 18 years.Methods: The study is a descriptive cross-sectional research design on 186 students of UEAB in 2017. In order to collect the data was used a self-administered questionnaire, which will be used to measure the knowledge level and perception to gather factual information about the respondents. This questionnaire will involve a set of closed-ended questions. The data were analysed using SPSS 23. The researchers used descriptive statistics including mean, median and mode.Results: The knowledge on obesity, it was found that most of the participants have heard of obesity and they term it as the excessive fat accumulation to body. Participants also indicated that they knew the causes of obesity and in degrees of whether they agree or disagree, indicated that they strongly agreed and agreed that consumption of junk foods and lack of physical exercise caused obesity and they agreed that family history may also cause obesity. The perception on obesity, participants viewed obesity to be average among undergraduate ladies residing in ladies’ dorm. It was also revealed that 7.5 percent of the participants think they are obese and they are unsatisfied with their body weights.Conclusions: The study exposes the lack of knowledge regarding obesity. However, perceptions of the participants were promising. This is because nearly all of them felt those who are not obese should be encouraged to maintain their weight and the overweight people should lose weight or be treated to achieve medical benefit.