Medical University of Bahrain, Muharraq, Bahrain.
Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Bahrain.
East Mediterr Health J. 2024 Apr 14;30(3):196-203. doi: 10.26719/emhj.24.008.
One-third of the Bahraini population is classified as obese; however, research on the public perceptions of obesity in the country is limited.
This study evaluated perceptions of obesity among adults attending public healthcare clinics in Bahrain.
This cross-sectional, observational study combined questionnaires from 2 previously published obesity surveys to obtain data on the anthropometric measurements of weight and height from 356 participants in Bahrain. The combined questionnaire was administered to adults attending 8 randomly selected, geographically distributed public healthcare centres from the 4 governorates of Bahrain. The data was then analysed using SPSS version 25.
Overall obesity prevalence among the participants was 41.4%. Participants with normal or higher body mass index more often believed that obesity was a lifestyle choice and a risk factor rather than a disease. Conversely, underweight respondents more often perceived obesity as a disease. Of the obese participants, only 49% perceived themselves as obese and 49% perceived themselves as slightly overweight. Sixty-five percent thought that their overall health was good to very good. The older the overweight participants were, the less likely were they to perceive themselves as overweight. Of all the respondents, 45.8% perceived obesity as a disease.
Despite public acknowledgement of obesity as a health risk, many (46.4%) of our study participants did not perceive it as a disease. There is a need for targeted national programmes to educate the older and younger populations in Bahrain about the implications for health of overweight and obesity and how to prevent or control them early.
三分之一的巴林人口被归类为肥胖;然而,关于该国公众对肥胖看法的研究有限。
本研究评估了巴林参加公共医疗诊所的成年人对肥胖的看法。
这项横断面观察性研究将来自之前发表的两项肥胖调查的问卷相结合,从巴林的 356 名参与者中获得体重和身高的人体测量数据。综合问卷在巴林四个省的 8 个随机选择的地理分布的公共医疗中心的成年人中进行了管理。然后使用 SPSS 版本 25 对数据进行分析。
参与者中总体肥胖患病率为 41.4%。体重指数正常或更高的参与者更倾向于认为肥胖是一种生活方式选择和风险因素,而不是一种疾病。相反,体重不足的受访者更倾向于将肥胖视为一种疾病。在肥胖参与者中,只有 49%的人认为自己肥胖,49%的人认为自己略胖。65%的人认为自己的整体健康状况良好到非常好。超重参与者年龄越大,他们越不可能认为自己超重。在所有受访者中,45.8%的人认为肥胖是一种疾病。
尽管公众承认肥胖是一种健康风险,但我们研究的许多参与者(46.4%)并不认为肥胖是一种疾病。巴林需要有针对性的国家方案,教育年轻人和老年人超重和肥胖对健康的影响,以及如何及早预防或控制超重和肥胖。