Conocimientos sobre el riesgo de la obesidad para la salud en estudiantes de Educación Física de Chile

Introduction: currently there are no instruments in Spanish that specifically measure the level of knowledge about obesity, and even less, that measure the risks associated with obesity. Objectives: they were to know the psychometric properties of ORK-9 in a sample of students of Physical Education Pedagogy from Chile and to compare knowledge about associated health risks according to sociodemographic variables. Methodology: the knowledge scale on health risks associated with obesity was applied to 471 physical education students from three universities in Chile. Results: show that the instrument is valid and reliable to be applied in this population. The average number of correct answers in the total sample was 3.5 1.6 (out of a maximum of nine possible), with most of the respondents/es having between 2 and 5 correct answers (almost 80% of the sample). No differences were observed between men and women or according to socio-economic status. Significant differences were observed between students of 3 and 4 years of the course in relation to 1 and 2, with greater knowledge in the students of later years. Discussion: The results obtained in the physical education sample in Chile are similar to those obtained in the unskilled population of the UK, with a low level of knowledge. Conclusions: More studies on this subject are needed, including other study houses and incorporating other sociodemographic variables that could be related to the knowledge of obesity risks in health.