Obesity Awareness Levels of Public and Private Lower-Secondary School Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the obesity awareness levels of lower-secondary school students differ according to school type and gender, and whether there is a relationship between the level of awareness and the body mass indexes of students. The population of this study is the 12-14 years old lower-secondary school students. A total of 590 students were included in the study this study. The mean ages of the female students were 13.0±.9 and male students were 13.0±1.0. Demographic Information Form, Obesity Awareness Scale and BMI measurements were used to collect data. Independent t-test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to analyze data. Results of the data analysis showed statistically no significant difference between the public and private lower-secondary school students’ obesity awareness levels. The only difference found between the students’ BMI levels. Results also showed statistically no significant difference between female and male students’ obesity awareness levels. Correlation analysis revealed a non-significant correlation between BMI and obesity awareness scores of female and male lower-secondary school students. The study findings showed that obesity awareness were similar in public and private lower-secondary school students, and did not correlate with BMI level of students.