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Youth Understanding of Healthy Eating and Obesity: A Focus Group Study

Introduction. Given the high prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States, we aimed to investigate youth's understanding of obesity and to investigate gaps between their nutritional knowledge, dietary habits, and perceived susceptibility to obesity and its co-morbidities. Methods. A mar...

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Autores principales: Sylvetsky, Allison C., Hennink, Monique, Comeau, Dawn, Welsh, Jean A., Hardy, Trisha, Matzigkeit, Linda, Swan, Deanne W., Walsh, Stephanie M., Vos, Miriam B.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730149/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23956844
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/670295
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author Sylvetsky, Allison C.
Hennink, Monique
Comeau, Dawn
Welsh, Jean A.
Hardy, Trisha
Matzigkeit, Linda
Swan, Deanne W.
Walsh, Stephanie M.
Vos, Miriam B.
author_facet Sylvetsky, Allison C.
Hennink, Monique
Comeau, Dawn
Welsh, Jean A.
Hardy, Trisha
Matzigkeit, Linda
Swan, Deanne W.
Walsh, Stephanie M.
Vos, Miriam B.
author_sort Sylvetsky, Allison C.
collection PubMed
description Introduction. Given the high prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States, we aimed to investigate youth's understanding of obesity and to investigate gaps between their nutritional knowledge, dietary habits, and perceived susceptibility to obesity and its co-morbidities. Methods. A marketing firm contracted by Children's Healthcare of Atlanta facilitated a series of focus group discussions (FGD) to test potential concepts and sample ads for the development of an obesity awareness campaign. Data were collected in August and September of 2010 with both overweight and healthy weight 4th-5th grade and 7th-8th grade students. We conducted a secondary analysis of the qualitative FGD transcripts using inductive thematic coding to identify key themes related to youth reports of family eating habits (including food preparation, meal frequency, and eating environment), perceived facilitators and barriers of healthy diet, and knowledge about obesity and its complications. Results. Across focus group discussions, mixed attitudes about healthy eating, low perceived risk of being or becoming obese, and limited knowledge about the health consequences of obesity may contribute to the rising prevalence of obesity among youth in Georgia. Most youth were aware that obesity was a problem; yet most overweight youth felt that their weight was healthy and attributed overweight to genetics or slow metabolism. Conclusions. Our analysis suggests that urban youth in Georgia commonly recognize obesity as a problem, but there is less understanding of the link to lifestyle choices or the connection to future morbidities, suggesting a need for education to connect lifestyle behaviors to development of obesity.
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spelling pubmed-37301492013-08-16 Youth Understanding of Healthy Eating and Obesity: A Focus Group Study Sylvetsky, Allison C. Hennink, Monique Comeau, Dawn Welsh, Jean A. Hardy, Trisha Matzigkeit, Linda Swan, Deanne W. Walsh, Stephanie M. Vos, Miriam B. J Obes Research Article Introduction. Given the high prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States, we aimed to investigate youth's understanding of obesity and to investigate gaps between their nutritional knowledge, dietary habits, and perceived susceptibility to obesity and its co-morbidities. Methods. A marketing firm contracted by Children's Healthcare of Atlanta facilitated a series of focus group discussions (FGD) to test potential concepts and sample ads for the development of an obesity awareness campaign. Data were collected in August and September of 2010 with both overweight and healthy weight 4th-5th grade and 7th-8th grade students. We conducted a secondary analysis of the qualitative FGD transcripts using inductive thematic coding to identify key themes related to youth reports of family eating habits (including food preparation, meal frequency, and eating environment), perceived facilitators and barriers of healthy diet, and knowledge about obesity and its complications. Results. Across focus group discussions, mixed attitudes about healthy eating, low perceived risk of being or becoming obese, and limited knowledge about the health consequences of obesity may contribute to the rising prevalence of obesity among youth in Georgia. Most youth were aware that obesity was a problem; yet most overweight youth felt that their weight was healthy and attributed overweight to genetics or slow metabolism. Conclusions. Our analysis suggests that urban youth in Georgia commonly recognize obesity as a problem, but there is less understanding of the link to lifestyle choices or the connection to future morbidities, suggesting a need for education to connect lifestyle behaviors to development of obesity. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013 2013-07-17 /pmc/articles/PMC3730149/ /pubmed/23956844 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/670295 Text en Copyright © 2013 Allison C. Sylvetsky et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Sylvetsky, Allison C.
Hennink, Monique
Comeau, Dawn
Welsh, Jean A.
Hardy, Trisha
Matzigkeit, Linda
Swan, Deanne W.
Walsh, Stephanie M.
Vos, Miriam B.
Youth Understanding of Healthy Eating and Obesity: A Focus Group Study
title Youth Understanding of Healthy Eating and Obesity: A Focus Group Study
title_full Youth Understanding of Healthy Eating and Obesity: A Focus Group Study
title_fullStr Youth Understanding of Healthy Eating and Obesity: A Focus Group Study
title_full_unstemmed Youth Understanding of Healthy Eating and Obesity: A Focus Group Study
title_short Youth Understanding of Healthy Eating and Obesity: A Focus Group Study
title_sort youth understanding of healthy eating and obesity: a focus group study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730149/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23956844
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/670295
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