Assessment of the attitude of nursing students about obesity in the Semnan University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Anecdotes abound about obesity and obese person being ridiculed and society attitudes about obese persons are clearly negative and many of health care workers, also believes these myths. This study was performed to determine the attitudes of nursing students of Semnan University of medical sciences about obesity myths. Materials and Methods: This research was a descriptive-analytic study and was performed on 115 of the nursing students of the Semnan University of Medical Sciences in May 2006. Data was collected with researcher-made questionnaire, which it was composed of demographic data and 25 common myths about obesity. The myths were selected from the internet using key word "Obesity myths". We used 5-point Likert scale for the assessment of nursing student's attitude. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS program using chi-square and spearman correlation test. Results: The result of study showed that nursing students have anti-fat bias towards obese individuals and some of their attitudes need corrections, however, 59/1% of the students have positive attitudes about obesity myths (disagreement with obesity myths). Conclusion: Nurses are at first line of confrontation with clients and patients. Beliefs and attitudes of nurses can contribute to providing care of obese individuals. More education about obesity concept is necessary.