Obesity Awareness Among Elementary School Students: A Controlled Before - After Study

Objective: Obesity is a metabolic disorder that occurs due to excessive body fat accumulation and can lead to physical and emotional problems. Preventing and treating obesity in childhood and adolescence is crucial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of obesity awareness education provided to fourth-grade elementary school students. Methods: An experimental study with pretest-posttest control group design was conducted. The study sample consisted of a total of 663 students, 344 students in the experimental group and 319 students in the control group, who attended the fourth grade of two elementary schools in Istanbul and met the inclusion criteria. Results: The sample included 326 girls (49.2%) and 337 boys (50.8%). The mean (SD) BMI was 18.45 (3.49) in the experimental group and 18.04 (3.00) in the control group. 73% (n = 251) of the students in the experimental group and 77.7% (n = 248) of the students in the control group stated that obesity only made walking/running difficult. There was no difference in obesity awareness scores between the experimental and control groups before the education (p=0.92). However, at 1 week and 1 month after the education, the experimental group had significantly higher scores compared to the control group (p<0.001 for both). Conclusion: Our results showed that fourth-grade elementary school students were aware of obesity, but their awareness increased significantly compared to the control group after receiving obesity awareness education. This study showed that raising children's awareness would help avoid factors that could lead to obesity.