The Relation Between Awareness of Obesity and Self-Esteem Among Medical and Psychology Students with Their Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference

Tevfik Fikret Karahan, Bektas Murat Yalcin, Esra Yalcin

Keywords: Obesity, obesity awareness, self-esteem

Aim:

We aimed to investigate the relation between BMI and waist circumference (WC) and obesity awareness among medical and psychology students

Method:

772 medical students from Ondokuz Mayis University medical faculty and 324 psychology students from Avrasya University included in this study. Obesity Awareness Scale (OAS) and Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RES) were applied to all of the participants and their weight, height and waist circumferences are measured. The demographic features of the participants were also investigated. IBM SPSS 22.0 was used to analyse the data. A p value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results:

60, 9% (n = 669) of the individuals participating in the study were female and the average age of was 23, 94 ± 9, 28 years. The BMI average of the participants was 24.6 ± 4, 6 kg/m2 while WC was 92,6±2,8 cm. Among the participants 26,7% were overweight and 13, 5% were obese. The mean of the total score for OAW was 38 ± 6.05 points. The mean scores for three sub dimensions (obesity awareness, nutrition and physical activity) were as, 28, 68 ± 3, 22, 19, 97 ± 2, 41 and 14, 73 ± 2, 23 points. There was a negative relationship between BMI, WC, RES and OAW (r=0,458, r=0,521, r=0,567, p<0,001 respectively). In linear regression model there was a negative relation between RES and BMI, WC and OAW (F=1,897, p<0,001).

Conclusions:

Our study points out a significant relation between obesity and low self-esteem which may a risk factor for other psychiatric diseases.

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