Public beliefs about the consequences of living with obesity in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

BMC Public Health

Table 4 Subscales scores and total Obesity Beliefs Scale scores (for overall sample and by weight category)

Variables	Overall Sample	Living with healthy weight ¹ (n = 370)	Living with overweight ¹ (n = 223)		Living with obesity ¹ (N = 127)		Non-responders ¹ (N = 326)
	Median	Median	Median	P ²	Median	P ²	Median	P ²
Health Beliefs Subscale Score (N = 1046)	20.00	21.00	21.00	0.028	20.00	0.044	20.00	< 0.001
Social And Aesthetic Beliefs Subscale Score (n = 1039)	15.00	15.00	14.00	0.001	15.00	0.071	14.00	< 0.001
Costs Subscale Score (n = 1046)	14.00	15.00	14.00	0.033	11.00	< 0.001	13.00	< 0.001
Total OBS Score ³ (n = 1039)	48.00	50.00	49.00	< 0.001	46.00	< 0.001	46.00	< 0.001

¹BMI range in weight categories: Living with healthy weight = 18.5 kg/m² ≤ BMI < 25 kg/m²; Living with overweight = 25 kg/m² ≤ BMI < 30 kg/m²; Living with obesity = BMI ≥ 30 kg/m²
²P values as occurred from Mann-Whitney U test using ‘Living with healthy weight’ as reference group (significance level set to 0.0167 due to Bonferroni correction for repeated comparisons)
³OBS includes 14 items, each one of which can take a value from 1 to 5 rendering a total range of 14 to 70. Higher OBS scores indicate greater agreement with the benefits of living with a healthy weight and negative outcomes of living with obesity

ISSN: 1471-2458