Sağlık Bilimleri Öğrencilerinde Obezite Ön Yargısı ve İlişkili Etmenler

Abstract

Aim: This research was planned to determine the obesity prejudice levels of the faculty of health sciences students and to investigate factors related to obesity prejudice in students. Material and Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out with 756 students studying at the faculty of health sciences of a state university. The data were collected using a questionnaire including sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, anthropometric measurements, GAMS-27 Obesity Prejudice Scale, and Eating Attitude Test-40. SPSS 26.0 statistical software was used to analyze the data and the significance level was accepted as p<0.05. Results: The mean age of the students participating in this research was 20.07±1.36 years. According to the GAMS-27 Obesity Prejudice Scale, 53.6% of students were prejudiced against obesity, 41.1% were inclined to prejudice and 5.3% were unprejudiced. When obesity prejudice was evaluated by departments, obesity prejudice was found higher among nutrition and dietetic students compared to nursing and physiotherapy and rehabilitation students (p<0.001). According to body mass index classification, obesity prejudice scale scores were determined lower in students with obesity compared to other students (p=0.001). Similarly, students who accepted themselves as obese in a period throughout their life had significantly lower prejudice scale scores than those without such a period (p=0.005). Conclusion: The majority of students studying in the health sciences, especially in the nutrition and dietetics department were either prejudiced or inclined to prejudice. It may be suggested to add practices to the curriculum to reduce obesity prejudice in order to provide an effective and prejudice-free healthcare service in the future.