RESEARCH ARTICLE


Attitudes of Jordanian Adolescent Students Toward Overweight and Obesity



Nesrin N. Abu Baker1, *, Nahla Al-Ali1, Ranyah Al-Ajlouni2
1 Faculty of Nursing, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110, Jordan
2 Princess Salma Faculty of Nursing, Al-Albayt University, Mafraq 2, Jordan


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Creative Commons License
© 2018 Abu Baker et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Faculty of Nursing, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O.Box 3030, Irbid 22110 Jordan; Tel: +962(02)7201000, Fax: +962(02)7095123; E-mail: nesrin@just.edu.jo


Abstract

Background:

Obesity is a serious public health problem especially among adolescents. Understanding adolescents’ attitudes toward obesity and healthy lifestyle is a crucial step to develop effective health programs to treat and prevent obesity.

Objectives:

To examine the attitudes toward overweight and obesity among Jordanian adolescent students and to identify the components of obesity prevention program that the students perceive as important.

Methods:

A sample of 1000 students in 8th to 10th grades was randomly selected from 16 schools in Irbid, Jordan. A self-reported questionnaire including attitude related questions was used in a descriptive, cross-sectional study.

Results:

Generally, the students expressed positive attitudes toward obesity; which means that their attitudes were consistent with societal norms in terms of health and social functioning (mean= 3.5, SD=0.39). Furthermore, the students expressed positive attitudes toward lifestyle; which means that their attitudes were consistent with healthy behaviors (mean=3.7, SD=0.58). However, boys had significantly more positive attitudes than girls (p=0.04). The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 23.8%, while obese and non-obese students had similar attitudes toward lifestyle and obesity. Finally, around 20% to 30% of students desired a prevention program out of school time shared with their families and friends and involving eating healthy food and getting more exercise.

Conclusion:

More efforts are needed to build effective obesity prevention programs that focus on eating healthy diet and getting more exercise considering gender differences.

Keywords: Adolescents, Attitudes, Obesity, Overweight, Health program, Jordan.