Is social exposure to obesity associated with weight status misperception? Assessing Australians ability to identify overweight and obesity.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Overweight and obesity prevalence has increased significantly over the past two decades, currently impacting greater than 60% of Australians. It is unclear if a social perception of a healthy weight has been obscured by the increase in prevalence and thus has become inconsistent with the medical definitions.

Methods

An electronic questionnaire was distributed via email and social media using the authors' informal networks. Australian adults were eligible to participate. Participants were asked to categorise their own body size using medically accepted words and previously published silhouettes, before identifying underweight, healthy weight, overweight or obesity in a series ofsilhouettes.

Results

Eight hundred six questionnaires were completed, a majorit

SUBMITTER: Opie CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6727423 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature