Knowledge of Obesity and its Relationship with Cancer Development among Individuals attending the Annual General Meeting of Nigerian Union of Journalists, Akwa Ibom State Chapter

Abstract

Public knowledge of the causal relationship between obesity and cancer is still limited. This study  sought to assess the knowledge of the  role played by obesity as a causative risk factor for cancer among  individuals attending the Annual General Meeting of Nigerian Union of  Journalists, Akwa Ibom State  Chapter. Data from this descriptive cross-sectional study was collected through a self-administered  questionnaire given to randomly selected individuals attending the Annual General Meeting of  Nigerian Union of Journalists, Akwa Ibom  State Chapter in December 2019. A total of 184  respondents were recruited. The age group of 31-40 years had the highest proportion  (37.5%) with a  mean of 39.6 + 2.8 years. Almost 99.0% of the respondents indicated that they were previously aware of  obesity, with 57.1  % tracing the source of information to the period of secondary school studentship.  Over 52.0% of the respondents had defined obesity as  excess body fat. Only 27.5% of the respondents  have sufficient knowledge regarding the Body mass Index (BMI) and 24.2% of  respondents were  knowledgeable of the relationship between obesity and cancer with 56.5% of them indicating a link  between obesity  and cancers of the breast, digestive system, endometrium, prostate and kidney. Our  study showed that respondents in the young age  group were significantly more aware of the  relationship between obesity and cancer (p-value < 0.0001). Our study concluded that only  24.2% of  respondents were knowledgeable about the causal relationship between obesity and cancer.