Attitude of Medical Students Towards Obese People

Abstract Background & Objectives: Obesity has emerged as a rising situation around the globe and negative attitude of society is often directed towards obese people that cause bias in all life aspects especially health care facilities. The present study was undertaken to assess the attitude of medical students towards obese people using ATOP (Attitude Towards Obese People) scale and to see if the attitude differs with respect to study year or gender. Study Design: Cross sectional study Place and duration of study: This study was carried out in CMH Lahore Medical and Institute of Dentistry from October 19 2016 to December 1 2016. Methods: Non-probability convenient sampling was used to collect data from 150 medical students using standardized questionnaire for ATOP. The data was entered and analyzed using SPSS 20. Results: A total of 150 students were included in this study with a mean age of 21.53+1.42 (18-24) years with 105 (70.0%) females and 45 (30.0%) males. The overall mean ATOP score was 51.48+6.67 (range 25-60) in our study which is extremely negative. The ATOP score given by students of all classes and both genders was negative without any statistical association of any specific class or gender with ATOP scale categories (p-value=0.254 & 0.185 respectively). Conclusion: Our study concluded that students have a very negative attitude towards obesity in general as well as for obese persons. This negative attitude is same among both genders and for students of all study years