Knowledge of Obesity and Its Relationship With Cancer Development Among Individuals Attending the Annual General Meeting of Nigerian Union of Journalists, Akwa Ibom State Chapter

Public knowledge of the causal relationship between obesity and cancer is still limited. This study sought to assess the knowledge of the role played by obesity as a causative risk factor for cancer among individuals attending the Annual General Meeting of Nigerian Union of Journalists, Akwa Ibom State Chapter. Data from this descriptive cross-sectional study was collected through a self-administered questionnaire given to randomly selected individuals attending the Annual General Meeting of Nigerian Union of Journalists, Akwa Ibom State Chapter in December 2019. A total of 184 respondents were recruited. The age group of 31-40 years had the highest proportion (37.5%) with a mean of 39.6 + 2.8 years. Almost 99.0% of the respondents indicated that they were previously aware of obesity, with 57.1 % tracing the source of information to the period of secondary school studentship. Over 52.0% of the respondents had defined obesity as excess body fat. Only 27.5% of the respondents have sufficient knowledge regarding the Body mass Index (BMI) and 24.2% of respondents were knowledgeable of the relationship between obesity and cancer with 56.5% of them indicating a link between obesity and cancers of the breast, digestive system, endometrium, prostate and kidney. Our study showed that respondents in the young age group were significantly more aware of the relationship between obesity and cancer (p-value < 0.0001). Our study concluded that only 24.2% of respondents were knowledgeable about the causal relationship between obesity and cancer.