Concepts of obesity among outpatients of a Jamaican hospital

Obesity is an important risk factor for the development of chronic non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, which affects large numbers of Caribbean people. There is a perception that Caribbean culture is not only tolerant of obesity but actually encourages this state, especially among women. We carried out a survey among normal-weight and overweight adults in order to investigate their attitudes to obesity. Three hundred adults (245 women and 55 men) present at the Casualty department at the University Hospital during the study period were asked to participate. A questionnaire was given, and heights and weights were measured to determine Body Mass Index (BMI). The relation between BMI and attitudes to obesity was explored. Forty percent of the respondents agreed that fatness was a sign of happiness, 15 percent thought it represented wealth, and 10 percent thought it represented health. Just over half (58 percent) of the women who were overweight perceived themselves to be fat, while of the overweight men (42 percent) thought themselves fat. Fifty-six percent of the men, and 38 percent of the women preferred a slim partner. Most respondents were aware of the diseases associated with obesity and could name foods which contributed to obesity e.g. fried foods and sweets. These data suggest that obesity is viewed favourably, or not unfavourably, by nearly half of the sample, or the converse, over half of the respondents did not view obesity favourably. Although the problems of obesity are recognized, overweight people are not necessarily aware that they are in fact overweight and at risk. Health promotion efforts should take this into account.

A case-control study of aggressive and pro-social Jamaican school boys

The study examined the correlates of behaviour of 102 aggressive and 103 prosocial boys, selected by peer and teacher ratings, from grades 5 and 6 in 10 schools in urban Kingston and St. Andrew. The children were given in-depth questionnaires, school achievement tests (WRAT) and verbal ability tests (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test). Their parents were also given questionnaires. Interobserver and test-retest reliabilities were established for all questionnaires and tests. Interviewers were unaware of the boys' group. The aggressive group was significantly older (mean 11.4 years) than the pro-social boys (mean 11.1 years; t-test p,0.01). The aggressive group had significantly lower scores on both the number of possessions and the housing rating (proxies for socio-economic status), they showed significantly lower scores on spelling, arithmetic, reading and verbal IQ, and considered themselves less bright than the pro-social boys. Preliminary analyses indicate that, as expected, the aggressive boys fought more and used knives in fights more compared with the pro-social boys. They reported receiving significantly more punishments at home. The aggressive group indicated that they saw significantly more family quarrels, threats between family members and family fights. All differences remained significant when socio-economic status was controlled in analyses of covariance except that the differences in the arithmetic scores was no longer significant. Many of these patterns are similar to those reported elsewhere.

Activity levels and maternal-child behavior in undernutrition: studies in Jamaica

It has been well established that children suffering from severe or moderate protein energy malnutrition in early childhood show delayed development, but the mechanisms linking undernutrition to poor development are not well understood. One holds that undernutrition causes irreversible central nervous system changes that affect function... The authors have recently reviewed, in detail, studies on activity and undernutrition n children. This work will briefly review the literature on activity levels and behavior in undernourished children and then describe two Jamaican studies that addresses aspects of the functional isolation hypothesis. Activity levels will be discussed first, then, other behaviors