Human Nutrition & Metabolism (Mar 2021)
Child obesity prevention: Nigerian children and adolescents have fair knowledge of obesity
Abstract
Introduction: Child and adolescent obesity has adverse implications, including adverse effects on education attainment, economy, and health. It is necessary to constantly examine the changing shifts in the underlying causes of child obesity, especially in countries where there are economic and political instabilities that influence consumption patterns. Additionally, there are variations in the rates of obesity according to several characteristics, including race and religion. Studies that evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices of Nigerian Christian children towards obesity are not available. Therefore, this study aims to contribute an empirical knowledge in this area. Method: A mixed approach was used to assess the KAP of children regarding overweight and obesity. A cross-sectional survey by a 49-item questionnaire was used (n = 209) and includes food choice and preferences, perception and knowledge about causes of obesity. SPSS 22 was used for descriptive statistics, clustering and model of prediction of risk of obesity. Result: About 83% of the sampled population self-report to be aware about ‘obesity’ and/or ‘overweight’ before participating in the survey. Most children prefer fruits (62.2%) to chocolate (37.8%), water (83.7%) to soft drink (16.3%), soft drink (61.25%) to orange juice (38.8%) and local foods (57.9%) to junk foods (42.1%). Scoring and clustering the participants knowledge about the causes of obesity indicated an average knowledge. The older children (15–19 years) do not significantly have higher knowledge than younger children (6–14 years) about causes of obesity. Conclusion: Findings from this study show that children and adolescent within the study have some knowledge about the meaning, causes and prevention of obesity though it needs improvement in order to achieve child obesity prevention. Findings from this study could have implications towards policies and programs targeted at reducing child obesity, and engaging faith-based institutions in the prevention campaign.
