Awareness of risk factors for obesity among College students in Tamil Nadu: A Questionnaire based study Balaji V.1,*, Priya V. Vishnu2, Gayathri R.3 1First Year BDS Student, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Chennai-600 077 2Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Chennai-600 077 3Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Chennai-600 077 *Corresponding Author E-mail: imadentist1998@gmail.com
Online published on 17 July, 2017. Abstract Background Obesity the most prevalent form of malnutrition in both developed and developing countries and affecting children as well as adults is replacing the more traditional public health concerns. Obesity and overweight are the fifth leading cause of deaths worldwide. As obesity is the key risk factor in natural history of other chronic non-communicable diseases, obesity prevention strategies offer a cost-effective approach in preventing other chronic non-communicable diseases. Awareness level is the basic necessity to effect a change in behaviour, more so in case of medical students as they can be the health educators of the community. Objective To create awareness about risk factor of obesity among College students. Result Among 100 students, 64 were men and 36 were women. It was found that 57.4% men and 72.7% women were not aware of its risk factors, respectively. Conclusion The prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher compared to other studies and the awareness level was satisfactory. Top Keywords Overweight, obesity, awareness, risk factors. Top |