Obesity Risk Knowledge and Physical Activity in Families of Adolescents

Health risk knowledge has been identified as a key to making informed decisions regarding healthy lifestyle choices (J. Swift, C. Glazebrook, & I. Macdonald, 2005). This article describes a descriptive, correlation study conducted with adolescents and their parents to examine the relationship between obesity risk knowledge and physical activity levels in families of adolescents. A statistically significant inverse relationship is found between parental physical activities and the activity levels of adolescents (r=−.23, p<.05). Although a relationship between physical activity and obesity risk knowledge in parents is supported, the phenomenon is not found in adolescent participants.

Key words: Obesity, Physical activity, Risk knowledge, Adolescents