Prevalance of obesity,risk factors and assessment of lifestyle changes after obesity training in individuals over 19 years old registered to Gaziler 1 st Family Health Center of Kayapinar county in Diyarbakir

Obesity is a complex disease which threatens both developed and developing countries, affecting almost all aged and socio-economic groups with serious social and psychological dimensions, and becoming a public health problem nowadays. Our cross-sectional and interventional study was conducted on adults aged 19 and older who are registered to Family Health Center (FHM) number 1 in Gaziler, Kayapınar district, Diyarbakır city. 350 people participated in the study and it was aimed to determine the participants obesity frequency, the increasing factors of obesity and whether there was a change in their nutrition and lifestyles after training. The height, weight, waist circumference and also hip circumference of the participants was measured. The participants were informed about the damages of obesity, the health complications caused by obesity and the causes leading to obesity by interviewing face-to-face and on an individual basis. A written brochure consisted of the suggestions to the participants was given and one month later, the questions were asked by interviewing on the phone to determine whether there was a change in nutrition and lifestyle. Of the people participating in the study, the percentage of men was 47,4 %. The average of the age was 39,9 ± 15,5. 34,3 % of men and 16,3 % of women regularly were walking and doing exercise. 42,6 % of the participants have got information about obesity from anyplace so far. 74 % of our participants regard the obesity as a disease. 13,2 % of our participants stated that they had hypertension, 6,4 % diabetes and 4,4 % ischemic heart disease when we looked at the frequency of chronic diseases of our participants. The waist circumference ratio of our participants was 44,6% in men with waist circumference under 94 and 19,6% in women with waist circumference under 80. The average of Body Mass Index (BMI) was 26.1 ± 4.6 in men and 28.6 ± 6.4 in women. Of our participants, 4.3% were in the category of underweight, 31.4 % normal range, 34.6 % overweight, 20.3 % obese and 9.4 % morbidly obese. The obesity frequency was found to be statistically significant with the gender, age, marital status, education status, work status, daily activity status, presence of obesity in relatives, fat type used in meals, television watching frequency, hypertension, diabetes and presence of ischemic heart disease (p < 0,05). Some changes in the behaviors of the way of providing transportation in daily life, eating speed, preferred salt level in meals, using of slimming method were determined after training and the distinction was found statistically to be significant (P ≤ 0,050). As a result of our research, it has been determined that obesity is an important public health problem in our region and that our participants have health complications caused by obesity and the nutrition and lifestyle that needs to be changed. Some preventive medicines should be focused in obesity fighting. Positive discrimination should be granted to women in obesity fighting. Health education should be concentrated on and long-term effective health education for many segments of society should be given periodically. Key words: Obesity, Education, Nutrition.