Background: Obesity is a chronic disease with high prevalence in all age groups. Many overweight and obese people seem to be unaware of excess body weight.
Aim: Analysis of people affected by the misperception of excess body weight and their eating behaviors simultaneously with selected health parameters.
Methods: The study was conducted in 2017-2019 among 658 participants aged 20-79 from the population study-Bialystok PLUS (Poland). Results were based on clinical examinations and questionnaires.
Results: Unawareness of overweight and obesity is common among adults (21.7%). Participants unaware of their overweight and obesity presented much higher risk factors. A high cardiovascular risk profile was observed more often among people not aware of overweight and obesity than among normal weight people (23.0% vs. 10.0%) as well as more common asymptomatic carotid artery atherosclerosis (49.7% vs. 31.3%). The subjective perception of overweight and obesity based on BMI (body mass index) was equal to 26.4 kg/m2 in women and 27.9 kg/m2 in men. The assessment of their diet was less favorable than that of people with normal weight.
Conclusions: Unawareness of one's excessive weight and its health consequences may lead to hesitancy to apply a healthy lifestyle and hence increase the cardiovascular risk in a substantial part of society. Therefore, it should be considered a part of the cardiovascular disease risk spectrum. Measurement of BMI and discussion about its health implications should be a routine procedure during healthcare contacts.
Keywords: cardiovascular risk; diet; obesity.