| Learning Objective #1: Identify overweight and obesity as a major public health threat and a health disparity. | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Describe the relationship between knowledge of obesity’s consequences and body mass index in African American women |
The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between African American women's knowledge of obesity's consequences and body mass index. The Theory of Planned Behavior provided the framework for this quantitative descriptive study.
Seventy four African American women, aged 20-76 years from various locations in the Washington, DC metropolitan region participated in the study. The modified Obesity Risk Knowledge scale (ORK-10) was used to measure knowledge. The ORK-10 reliability coefficient was .52, scores ranged from 0 to 9 points (highest possible score 10), mean 4.7 (SD=1.99). Nineteen percent of the women answered 70% to 90% of the items correct; 58% scored higher than the mean. Knowledge of obesity's adverse consequences was found to have a nonsignificant relationship with BMI (r=.01, p=.89).
Exploratory analyses: Seventy seven percent of the participants were classified as overweight &/or obese and 55% had been diagnosed with one or more of obesity related diseases. BMI's from self report were significantly smaller than the researcher measured (t=7.21, df=72, p=.00). College education was significantly related to higher obesity risk knowledge scores & higher incomes (F (2, 70) =5.46, df=70, p =.00) & (X2 =13.39, df=2, p=.00), respectively. Married women had twice the prevalence of hypertension & high cholesterol compared to single women(X2 =3.83, df=1, p=.05).
There are strong implications for the development of educational programs to address obesity's adverse consequences, targeting African American women with high school & less education. There is also a need for further testing of the ORK-10 scale among Americans of all ethnicities.