Browsing by Subject "lohtusyöminen"

BACKGROUND Obesity has increased all over the world and also in Finland, which is causing nationwide health problems. Two out of three Finnish men and half of the women are overweight and every fifth Finn is obese. People face nowadays numerous food choice decisions daily. In order to be able to understand, which attitudinal factors may be risk factors for obesity, more information is needed about how people make food choices and whether body weight is associated with the importance of food choice motives. The area of weight, dieting and food choice motives hasn’t been researched much in the Finnish population before. OBJECTIVES The objective of this thesis was to study, whether there are differences in the importance of food choice motives among 25−64 years old Finns according to their body weight or dieting status. In addition, the prevalence of the factors related to weight and dieting in this population was also discussed. MATERIALS AND METHODS The data examined in this study was collected in FINRISKI 2012 -population study conducted in five different areas in Finland. The target group of this study were Finnish adults aged 25-64 years who filled in the questionnaires and attended the physical examination (n=4447). There were 2059 men and 2388 women. From the basic questionnaire was examined the socio-demographic factors, meal frequency, weight history and weight perception. From the follow-up questionnaire the data on dieting history, dieting status and food choice motives was utilized. From food choice motives only the most relevant motives regarding weight and weight control were examined. Methods used were cross-tabulation, linear regression and chi square -test (χ2-test). RESULTS AND CONCLUSION There were no major differences between different BMI groups for women or for men regarding which food choice motives the respondents rated important. Anyhow, some differences were detected regarding the favouring of low-fat foods and emotional eating. Overweight and obese respondents rated these food choice motives more important than normal weight respondents. Also those who had dieted more often, current dieters and those who perceived themselves as overweight also considered low-fat foods and emotional eating important. Finnish adults with different body weights considered most of the food choice motives equally important for the most part and thus weight is not associated with the perceived importance of food choice motives. The explanation for the lack of differences between body weight groups could be that overweight and obese people are overly conscious about their weight status. Also women considered the food choice motives more important than men, which might be explained by the more active role in food shopping and better knowledge about healthy food. Based on the results of this study, both the normal and over weight people as well as the obese have knowledge about healthy food choices and consider that knowledge as an important factor in the food choice situations. The perceived importance of emotional eating varies between weight groups, and that’s why the psychological factors relating to weight control and food choice should be taken into account in weight control groups and obesity interventions in order to prevent emotional eating.