Is obesity awareness related to anthropometric measures or sociocultural factors?

Obesity, a major global health problem in terms of morbidity and mortality, is prompting research into the relationship between changing anthropometric measurements and awareness levels. The aim of our study was to examine whether obesity awareness is associated with anthropometric characteristics or sociocultural and behavioral characteristics.

A total of 123 adult volunteers (aged 30-60) were stratified into groups with normal weight (n = 37), overweight (n = 44), and obesity (n = 42). In addition to sociodemographic data (age, sex, smoking, exercise, profession, etc.) that may affect the development of obesity, anthropometric measurements (BMI, waist-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio) were taken from the participants. An obesity awareness scale was used to assess levels of awareness.

Anthropometric measurements showed no correlation with the overall obesity awareness scale. However, within the awareness subscale, the group with overweight scored significantly higher than the group with obesity (p = 0.005). We also observed significant correlations among the anthropometric metrics themselves. In multivariable regression analysis adjusting for baseline sociodemographic confounders, BMI showed no independent association with overall obesity awareness (p = 0.928). Furthermore, our analysis of sociodemographic and behavioral factors revealed that the presence of a family member (p = 0.025) with obesity and occupational status (p = 0.002) significantly were significantly associated with obesity awareness.

The sum of these findings indicates that in this cross-sectional sample, obesity awareness did not significantly correlate with objective anthropometric measures.