Obesity awareness reduces food craving and improves metabolic parameters: A study on adults with overweight and obesity

Background: Obesity awareness encourages individuals to make healthy lifestyle choices, while low obesity awareness leads to adverse clinical outcomes. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between obesity awareness with food craving and metabolic parameters in adults with overweight and obesity. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 508 adults with overweight or obesity. Tools used to collect the data were the Descriptive Information Form, Obesity Awareness Scale and Insight Scale, and Food Craving Inventory. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression analysis were used in data analysis. The significance level of statistical tests was accepted as p < 0.05. Results: Percentages of adults with overweight and obesity were 49.1% and 50.9% respectively. According to the linear regression analysis, in Model 1, Model 2, and Model 3, obesity awareness was statistically significantly negatively associated with food craving (β:−0.114), waist circumference (β:−0.266), triglyceride levels (β:−0.161), fasting glucose level (β:−0.099) and diastolic blood pressure level (β:−0.105). Conclusions: In this study, a decrease in food craving and improvement in some metabolic parameters were found in overweight and obese adults as obesity awareness increased.