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Overweight and obesity in young adult women: A matter of health or appearance? The Tromsø study: Fit futures

With the increasing number of overweight and obese people, there is a growing public health concern and focus on body size and lifestyle issues, especially in the media. Young adult women comprise a vulnerable group regarding issues of weight balance and appearance. The aim of the study was to exami...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sand, Anne-Sofie, Emaus, Nina, Lian, Olaug
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Co-Action Publishing 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4580710/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26400463
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v10.29026
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author Sand, Anne-Sofie
Emaus, Nina
Lian, Olaug
author_facet Sand, Anne-Sofie
Emaus, Nina
Lian, Olaug
author_sort Sand, Anne-Sofie
collection PubMed
description With the increasing number of overweight and obese people, there is a growing public health concern and focus on body size and lifestyle issues, especially in the media. Young adult women comprise a vulnerable group regarding issues of weight balance and appearance. The aim of the study was to examine the experiences of young women on how this focus influences their attitudes concerning weight changes, appearance, and health. We conducted 12 interviews with young women from two different weight groups about the attention on overweight issues. The results from the in-depth interviews were scrutinized through content analyses. The main findings indicate that young women experience a considerable focus on overweight issues with a trend towards appearance rather than health. Overweight and obesity are sensitive topics, and participants expressed strong views on the cultural definitions of normal body size and appearance. The squeeze between cultural norms and young women's perceptions of their own body and health was described as a possible negative factor influencing well-being as well as motivation for lifestyle changes. A more relaxed focus on overweight issues and especially on appearance is necessary when addressing weight-balance issues and lifestyle changes in young adult women.
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spelling pubmed-45807102015-10-20 Overweight and obesity in young adult women: A matter of health or appearance? The Tromsø study: Fit futures Sand, Anne-Sofie Emaus, Nina Lian, Olaug Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being Empirical Study With the increasing number of overweight and obese people, there is a growing public health concern and focus on body size and lifestyle issues, especially in the media. Young adult women comprise a vulnerable group regarding issues of weight balance and appearance. The aim of the study was to examine the experiences of young women on how this focus influences their attitudes concerning weight changes, appearance, and health. We conducted 12 interviews with young women from two different weight groups about the attention on overweight issues. The results from the in-depth interviews were scrutinized through content analyses. The main findings indicate that young women experience a considerable focus on overweight issues with a trend towards appearance rather than health. Overweight and obesity are sensitive topics, and participants expressed strong views on the cultural definitions of normal body size and appearance. The squeeze between cultural norms and young women's perceptions of their own body and health was described as a possible negative factor influencing well-being as well as motivation for lifestyle changes. A more relaxed focus on overweight issues and especially on appearance is necessary when addressing weight-balance issues and lifestyle changes in young adult women. Co-Action Publishing 2015-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC4580710/ /pubmed/26400463 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v10.29026 Text en © 2015 A.-S. Sand et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
spellingShingle Empirical Study
Sand, Anne-Sofie
Emaus, Nina
Lian, Olaug
Overweight and obesity in young adult women: A matter of health or appearance? The Tromsø study: Fit futures
title Overweight and obesity in young adult women: A matter of health or appearance? The Tromsø study: Fit futures
title_full Overweight and obesity in young adult women: A matter of health or appearance? The Tromsø study: Fit futures
title_fullStr Overweight and obesity in young adult women: A matter of health or appearance? The Tromsø study: Fit futures
title_full_unstemmed Overweight and obesity in young adult women: A matter of health or appearance? The Tromsø study: Fit futures
title_short Overweight and obesity in young adult women: A matter of health or appearance? The Tromsø study: Fit futures
title_sort overweight and obesity in young adult women: a matter of health or appearance? the tromsø study: fit futures
topic Empirical Study
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4580710/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26400463
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v10.29026
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