Awareness of Causes, Consequences and Preventive Measures of Obesity among Adolescents in India

Background: The burden of obesity is rapidly increasing worldwide. Obesity is associated with wide range of diseases, including cardio respiratory disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and coronary heart disease. Aims: This study aimed to assess the awareness of the adolescents towards the causes, consequences and preventive measures of obesity. Methods: The present study was based on primary data. The study included 200 adolescents surveyed as per convenience sampling. The analysis was made with descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression. Results: The study identified that 64.0 percent of the respondents suffered from obesity at the time of survey. The logistic regression shows that obesity was associated with gender, age, education of the mother, income and eating habits of the breakfast. Thus, logistic regression clearly highlighted that obesity was associated with changing lifestyle. But, the awareness of the risk factors and the preventive measures of obesity was not clear among the adolescents. Conclusion: The present study provides sufficient evidence on the awareness of the causes, risk factors and preventive measures of obesity and calls for an immediate action to scale up cost-effective interventions for it both through private and public hospitals. Thus, study indicates a need for creating awareness among adolescents towards the consequences and preventive measures through mass media and campaigns at the schools.