the prevalence of obesity in high school students aged 15-17 in Balçova region and the relationship between obesity and health promoting behaviors

Objective: The aim of this study was identifying the prevalence of obesity in students aged 15-17 in high schools at Balçova region and the relationship between obesity and health promoting behaviors.Method: This study is a cross-sectional research including the whole high school students ages between 15-17 in 2008-2009 in Izmir, Balçova. From 1224 students 1089(77.9%) had participated. All students administered a questionnaire including the Health Promotion Life-Style Profile Scale (HPLPS). Weight, height, skinfold thickness, waist and hip circumferences were measured from the students who had agreed. SPSS 16.0 for Windows statistical program is used for data evaluation and descriptive analysis, mean, median, standard derivation, chi-square, Kruskall Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: 80.8% had normal ranges of BMI, 10.1% were overweight and 9,1% were obese. Obesity was 5.9% in girls, 13.6% in boys. 67.6% of students did not eat fast-food or any fruit, 44,6% did not drink beverages the day before the survey. 43.9% of them exercise enough just to sweat in a week. The HPLPS and obesity was not significant (p> 0.05). Cronbach's Alpha for the scale of our study was found to be 0.926. HPLPS average score was found to be 126.68 ± 20.38.Conclusion: Adolescence is an era of development which people have started to implement their own features to life. To advance the development of the adolescent in the healthy direction and to reduce the prevalence of obesity in this group of age, it is important to gain health promoting behaviors.Keywords: obesity, adolescence, Health Promotion Life-Style Profile Scale.