Socioeconomic status, perceptions and obesity among adolescents in Jordan.

Abdulhakeem Mahmoud Okour,Manar Hisham Hijazi,Hana Eyyad Al Khalaileh,Rami Abdullah Saadeh,Mahmoud Ahmad Alfaqih

doi:10.11604/pamj.2019.34.148.19641

Abdulhakeem Mahmoud Okour, Manar Hisham Hijazi + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2019.34.148.19641

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Abstract

IntroductionPrevalence of obesity among adolescents constitutes a serious public health problem. We aimed to investigate the association between socioeconomic factors and obesity perceptions, and prevalence of overweight and obesity among school adolescents.MethodsA cross-sectional study that included students 12 to 17 years old participating from six schools that were randomly selected in Northern Jordan. Body mass index (BMI) measurements and interview questions were completed by trained researchers. A total of 701 were successfully involved in the analysis.ResultsStudents involved were 53.6% males and 46.4% females. Students with normal BMI had a mean BMI of 21.45 (+1.76). Those who were obese, or overweight were 202 (28.8%) students and had a BMI of 29.1 (+4.05). Family monthly income, mother's education and working status among other socioeconomic status factors were significantly associated with children’s overweight or obesity. Perceptions about obesity including meal choices, interest in self body weight, considering someone in family as obese and instructions at school were statistically significant as well.ConclusionFamily factors, adolescents' pocket money and perceptions about obesity were significant predictors of obesity among adolescents in Jordan. Effective intervention strategies should be implemented in schools and other primary care settings to reduce the relatively high prevalence of adolescent's obesity observed in this study.

Highlights

At the individual level, childhood obesity is defined as "a result of an imbalance between the calories a child consumes as fat foods and beverages and the calories a child uses to maintain normal growth, metabolism, and physical activities" [1]
Studies have reported that the prevalence of obesity has been associated with age [1], gender [3], physical activity [4], dietary patterns [5], and socioeconomic status since families with less monthly household income suffer from an increase in overweight and obesity [6]
Mother's education and occupation, monthly household income, daily pocket income, and ranking between brothers and sisters were significantly associated with Body mass index (BMI) among other socioeconomic status (SES) factors

Summary

Introduction

Childhood obesity is defined as "a result of an imbalance between the calories a child consumes as fat foods and beverages and the calories a child uses to maintain normal growth, metabolism, and physical activities" [1]. Families that have a history of low SES often provides information of unhealthy behavior, poor preferences of food selection, shopping, cooking, and exercising [5,7,9,10] Another important social factor that is related to obesity is individuals' self-image and perceptions about health. The presence of delicious high calorie foods at home or school may not help children to make the correct decision and can lead to negative impacts, on the children who have low self-efficacy This chronic disease is multifactorial in origin, investigating related factors and working on reducing them in a systematic way will progress toward reducing the burden of disease. This study aimed at estimating the prevalence rate of overweight and obesity among adolescents in Irbid Governorate, North Jordan and in examining its relation to SES and individuals' perceptions on health

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