Table 2.

Students’ beliefs about the causes of obesity (n = 71)

Causes of obesity		Percentage of respondents rating the importance of each to obesity				Mean	SD	Cronbach’s alpha
		1 Moderately Important	2 Somewhat important	3 Moderately important	4 Very important
Within a person’s control
A	Unhealthy diet (e.g., sweetened beverages, fast food, etc.)	0	1.4	36.6	62.0	3.61	.520	0.742
B	Physical inactivity	0	2.8	40.8	56.3	3.54	.556
C	Overeating	0	4.2	43.7	52.1	3.48	.582
D	Lack of willpower	11.4	44.3	34.3	10.0	2.43	.827
Outside a person’s control
E	Poor nutritional knowledge	1.4	5.6	40.8	52.1	3.44	.670	0.706
F	Lack of access to healthy foods	0	11.3	39.4	49.3	3.38	.684
G	Psychological problems	0	9.9	43.7	46.5	3.37	.660
H	Metabolic defect/ Endocrine disorder	0	15.5	42.3	42.3	3.27	.716
I	Genetics or biological factors	1.4	19.7	52.1	26.8	3.04	.726

Significant differences: I < A, B, C, E. D < A, B, C, E, F, G, H, I

Significant differences were determined by one-way ANOVA followed by a Tukey’s test to correct for multiple comparisons, p < 0.05