Nurses' Knowledge toward Obesity in Al-Basra City
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Abstract
Obesity is an epidemic disease and worldwide concern since it is an important risk factor for major causes of mortality, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. The knowledge of nurses is important to the management and prevention of obesity.
The study aimsto assess the level of nurses' knowledge about obesity and to find the relationship between Nurses' knowledge about obesity and their demographic variables (age, gender, level of education, and years of experience).
A descriptive study was conducted on nurses’ knowledge of obesity atAl-Faiha Teaching Hospital, Al-Sader Teaching Hospital, and Al-Mawani Teaching Hospital in Al-Basra City. The period of the study was started from the 10th of October 2020 to the 15th of April 2021. A purposive (non-probability) sample covers one hundred nurses who work in the surgical wards, a questionnaire was designed to investigate nurses’ demographics and knowledge toward obesity.
The findings of the presentstudy showed that 67% of nurses had poor knowledge about obesity, 30% of nurses had moderate knowledge and only 3% of nurses had good knowledge.
The present study concluded the nurses have poor knowledge about obesity.
The researcher recommends special training courses that should be designated and presented to the nurses about obesity and obesity-related comorbidities.