Barriers and facilitators of weight management: Perspectives of the urban poor in Accra, Ghana
BACKGROUND: Obesity is rising in sub-Saharan Africa and globally, and is a highly significant public health problem that needs urgent attention. To reduce the obesity prevalence levels and associated challenges, public health interventions highlight healthy eating and increased physical activity, wh...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9359579/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35939441 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272274 |
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author | Afrifa-Anane, Grace Frempong Badasu, Delali Margaret Codjoe, Samuel Nii Ardey Anarfi, John Kwasi |
author_facet | Afrifa-Anane, Grace Frempong Badasu, Delali Margaret Codjoe, Samuel Nii Ardey Anarfi, John Kwasi |
author_sort | Afrifa-Anane, Grace Frempong |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Obesity is rising in sub-Saharan Africa and globally, and is a highly significant public health problem that needs urgent attention. To reduce the obesity prevalence levels and associated challenges, public health interventions highlight healthy eating and increased physical activity, which are key elements for weight management. AIM: This study explored perceived factors that hinder or facilitate weight management in an urban poor context in Accra, Ghana. METHODS: A cross-sectional qualitative data was obtained from eight focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted among community members. The FGDs were audio recorded, transcribed, and analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The findings indicate that weight management is mainly inhibited by the perception that healthy foods are expensive and not satisfying, laziness, lack of time to engage in physical activity, and social representation of being fat or slim. On the contrary, personal decision to manage weight and social support facilitated engagement in weight management. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that weight management is influenced by individual, community, and structural factors. These findings have programmatic implications in terms of health education strategies and messaging. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9359579 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-93595792022-08-10 Barriers and facilitators of weight management: Perspectives of the urban poor in Accra, Ghana Afrifa-Anane, Grace Frempong Badasu, Delali Margaret Codjoe, Samuel Nii Ardey Anarfi, John Kwasi PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Obesity is rising in sub-Saharan Africa and globally, and is a highly significant public health problem that needs urgent attention. To reduce the obesity prevalence levels and associated challenges, public health interventions highlight healthy eating and increased physical activity, which are key elements for weight management. AIM: This study explored perceived factors that hinder or facilitate weight management in an urban poor context in Accra, Ghana. METHODS: A cross-sectional qualitative data was obtained from eight focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted among community members. The FGDs were audio recorded, transcribed, and analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The findings indicate that weight management is mainly inhibited by the perception that healthy foods are expensive and not satisfying, laziness, lack of time to engage in physical activity, and social representation of being fat or slim. On the contrary, personal decision to manage weight and social support facilitated engagement in weight management. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that weight management is influenced by individual, community, and structural factors. These findings have programmatic implications in terms of health education strategies and messaging. Public Library of Science 2022-08-08 /pmc/articles/PMC9359579/ /pubmed/35939441 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272274 Text en © 2022 Afrifa-Anane et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Afrifa-Anane, Grace Frempong Badasu, Delali Margaret Codjoe, Samuel Nii Ardey Anarfi, John Kwasi Barriers and facilitators of weight management: Perspectives of the urban poor in Accra, Ghana |
title | Barriers and facilitators of weight management: Perspectives of the urban poor in Accra, Ghana |
title_full | Barriers and facilitators of weight management: Perspectives of the urban poor in Accra, Ghana |
title_fullStr | Barriers and facilitators of weight management: Perspectives of the urban poor in Accra, Ghana |
title_full_unstemmed | Barriers and facilitators of weight management: Perspectives of the urban poor in Accra, Ghana |
title_short | Barriers and facilitators of weight management: Perspectives of the urban poor in Accra, Ghana |
title_sort | barriers and facilitators of weight management: perspectives of the urban poor in accra, ghana |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9359579/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35939441 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272274 |
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