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. 2014 Nov 5;4(11):e005561. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005561

Table 1.

Demographic characteristics of obese men and women and their weight perceptions and BMI knowledge: 2007 and 2012

  Women
Men
2007
2012
p Value 2007
2012
p Value
N=164
N=143
N=178
N=172
Age (mean, SD) 50.2 (16.1) 52.7 (17.5) t=−1.3 0.19 46.5 (14.9) 49.7 (15.2) t=−2.0 <0.05
BMI (mean, SD) 35.1 (4.6) 34.3 (4.3) t=1.72 0.09 33.5 (3.7) 34.3 (5.2) t=−1.5 0.13
Social grade % (n)
 High (ABC1) 48.8 (80) 49.7 (71) χ2=0.02 0.88 47.2 (84) 48.3 (83) χ2=0.04 0.84
 Low (C2DE) 51.2 (84) 50.3 (72) 52.8 (94) 51.7 (89)
Describe your current weight % (n)
 Underweight/about right 1.8 (3) 5.6 (8) χ2=10.61 <0.05 10.7 (19) 10.5 (18) χ2=3.73 0.29
 Overweight 48.2 (79) 60.8 (87) 62.4 (111) 66.3 (114)
 Very overweight 37.2 (61) 23.1 (33) 23.0 (41) 16.3 (28)
 Obese 12.8 (21) 10.5 (15) 3.9 (7) 7.0 (12)
BMI knowledge % (n)
 Heard of BMI 75.6 (124) 79.7 (114) χ2=0.74 0.39 73.6 (131) 76.2 (131) χ2=0.31 0.58
 Correctly identify BMI ‘obese’ 12.2 (20) 8.4 (12) χ2=1.18 0.28 5.1 (9) 7.0 (12) χ2=0.57 0.45

Weighted base: women=307 men=350.

BMI, body mass index.