Perception of parents, teachers, and nutritionist on childhood obesity and barriers to healthy behavior: a phenomenological study

Abstract

The worldwide epidemic of childhood obesity is progressing at an alarming rate. Obesity in childhood at high risk of becoming obese in adulthood and potentially experience metabolic disease and degenerative disease in the future. Obesity is not just an individual problem. It is a population problem and should be tackled as such. Various factors causing obesity in children include children's diet, level of physical activity, family factors, child psychological and genetic factors. This paper attempts to explore the problem more closely by conducting a qualitative study, the main objective of which is to determine barriers to a healthy lifestyle and variables that underlie overweight/obesity in children from their parents perspective. This research is a qualitative research with the phenomenological method. A total of 3 focus group discussions and 7 in-depth interviews were conducted, between July and October 2016, to explore parent’s, teacher’s, and nutritionist perceptions about underlying factors of their overweight/obesity and barriers to a healthy behavior.