Table 2 Students’ beliefs about the causes of obesity (n = 71)
From: Associations between medical students’ beliefs about obesity and clinical counseling proficiency
Causes of obesity | Percentage of respondents rating the importance of each to obesity | Mean | SD | Cronbach’s alpha | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Moderately Important | 2 Somewhat important | 3 Moderately important | 4 Very important | |||||
Within a person’s control | ||||||||
A | Unhealthy diet (e.g., sweetened beverages, fast food, etc.) | 0 | 1.4 | 36.6 | 62.0 | 3.61 | .520 | 0.742 |
B | Physical inactivity | 0 | 2.8 | 40.8 | 56.3 | 3.54 | .556 | |
C | Overeating | 0 | 4.2 | 43.7 | 52.1 | 3.48 | .582 | |
D | Lack of willpower | 11.4 | 44.3 | 34.3 | 10.0 | 2.43 | .827 | |
Outside a person’s control | ||||||||
E | Poor nutritional knowledge | 1.4 | 5.6 | 40.8 | 52.1 | 3.44 | .670 | 0.706 |
F | Lack of access to healthy foods | 0 | 11.3 | 39.4 | 49.3 | 3.38 | .684 | |
G | Psychological problems | 0 | 9.9 | 43.7 | 46.5 | 3.37 | .660 | |
H | Metabolic defect/ Endocrine disorder | 0 | 15.5 | 42.3 | 42.3 | 3.27 | .716 | |
I | Genetics or biological factors | 1.4 | 19.7 | 52.1 | 26.8 | 3.04 | .726 | |