Evaluation of the relationship between obesity prejudice and quality of life and nutritional status in adult individuals

This study was planned to evaluate the rate of obesity prejudice and the relationship between the people's quality of life and nutritional status. The study is conducted on a total of 199 randomly selected adults, 64 males (32.5%) and 135 females (67.5%). The study is carried out in Ankara Çankaya district who accepted to join the study within the age of 19-64. Data were collected by a questionnaire determining the characteristics of the individuals, obesity prejudice scale, life quality scale, 24 hour food consumption and physical activity determining questionnaires. According to the results of the obesity prejudice scale (OPS) applied to the participants, 50.8% measured as prejudiced and 44.7% were prone to prejudice. Proportion of the participants who were evaluated as not prejudiced were only 4.5%. There was no significant difference in OPS level between males and females, and no significant difference was found between OPS and age, and educational status. However, when the data were compared with the attitude of the individuals about obesity, it was found that there were statistically important relation between the person defining themselves as prejudiced and that being obese is the worst thing a person can experience (p<0.05). According to the results obtained from the quality of life scale, the overall average score is 3.61±0.52 Among the 8 variables of the scale the lowest result is 3.27±0.79. from variable asking the participants quality of life and the highest is 3.91±0.78 asking the participants' satisfaction with their relation with people. While there is no difference between men and women for these two variables, there is a significant difference between variables asking the participants having necessary energy or not, being satisfied with the ability of maintaining the activities of life and having enough money to meet their needs. Men are more satisfied with their daily energy, and with the ability to maintain the life activities than women, on the other hand women are more feeling comfort with the amount of money to meet their needs than man. There is no significant difference between quality of life and gender and education level, however the life quality was significantly higher in those over 41 years old (p<0.05). Life quality is also found to be significantly higher among the participants doing regular physical activity and those describing themselves as normal in terms of weight, and those not having any period in which they find themselves obese and those not having any obese individuals among their family or friends. According to the food consumption records of the participants; energy, macronutrients, vitamin and mineral values are lower than the recommended dietary amounts for both men and women. As recommended daily iron amount is higher in women than men, the amount meets 84.5% of men's daily needs while women meet only 47.3%. The lowest value (21%) is noted in folic acid. The results of the study showed that there was no significant relationship between obesity prejudice and the participants life quality and nutritional status. However, in today's world where obesity prejudice is rising, researches to be realized more broadly will undoubtedly add important contribution to the programs to be developed for the treatment and training of the people with obesity problems. Anahtar Kelimeler: Obezite önyargısı, obezite, yaşam kalitesi, beslenme durumu.