An Exploratory and Evaluative Study of the Prevalence, Related Knowledge, Attitude and Effectiveness of Awareness Program Regarding Obesity among Students of Selected Degree Colleges in Mysore City

Over the decades, the prevalence of obesity among adults and children have increased dramatically and it has now reached at its extreme proportion and stands as a major contributor to the global burden of chronic disease and disability. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of obesity and to examine the impact of an awareness program on knowledge and attitude of college students regarding obesity. The prevalence of obesity was determined among 300 college students. In the study, quasi experimental non equivalent control group pretest posttest design was used and non probability convenience sampling technique was adopted to select 90 samples, 45 each in experimental and control group. Anthropometric measurements i.e. the height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference of the college students were measured by using standardized weighing machine and measuring tape. Structured knowledge questionnaire and structured attitude scale was used to assess the knowledge and attitude of college students regarding obesity. An awareness program was conducted for the experimental group. The analysis of the findings revealed that the overall prevalence of overweight and obesity was found to be 20.00% and 4.77% respectively which puts young females at high risk and claims prior attention. The pretest findings showed that most of the college students had poor knowledge and favourable attitude towards obesity. The awareness program was effective in increasing the knowledge and changing the attitude of college students regarding obesity as the computed 't' (t44=19.32) value was found to be significant at 0.05 level of significance. It was also clear from the findings of the study that there was no significant relation between the knowledge and attitude of college students regarding obesity. There was no association between the pretest level of knowledge of college students with their selected personal variables except for type of family, occupation of parents, childhood eating habits and family history of obesity. None of the personal variables showed significant association with the pretest attitude scores except routine aerobic physical activity. It was concluded that, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing in an alarming rate among college going students and awareness program was effective in enhancing the knowledge and promoting a positive attitude towards obesity among college students. Therefore the study recommends that, it is the need of this hour to organize health campaigns and awareness programs to sensitize young adults to enhance the knowledge and attitude on healthy food habits, healthy lifestyles and a physically active daily routine thereby enabling them to be a healthy citizenry.