Zeitschrift für Ernährung und Lebensmittelwissenschaften
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The Health Concern Scale: What Results Does the Analysis of this Scale Bring in a Population of Young Participants of a Music Festival?

Maja Czerwińska, Dominika Maciejewska, Karina Ryterska, Pablo Serrano-Fernández, Karolina Jakubczyk, Marcin Banaszczak, Anna Wolska, Ernest Chrabąszcz, Maria Kisielowska, Zofia Stachowska, Adam Stachowski, Dagmara Paszkiewicz, Dawid Chróścielski, Jagoda Świacka and Ewa Stachowska

Introduction: The main factors that influence human health are: biological hereditary factors, the organisation of healthcare, the environment and lifestyle. Sedentary lifestyle leads to obesity which is one of the key risk factors of the diseases of our civilization. To cope with this problem, educational campaigns are created with the aim to promote a healthy lifestyle among young people. However, we have limited knowledge about whether young people pay attention to their health and, if yes, to what extent. The aim of the study: To evaluate how much attention young participants of the Woodstock music festival (2015, Poland) pay to their health, and to explore the relationship between the level of attention and gender, age, place of residence, education and anthropometric values. Materials and methods: 1316 participants aged 18-35 took part in the study. The research used the Health Concern Scale developed by Kähkönen and Touril in 1999. Results: A significant association between the concern for health and the Body Mass Index (BMI) was observed (p<0.0001), as well as between the care for health and gender-the results show that women pay more attention to their health than men (p=0.006). It was also shown that women keep their care for health stable independently of age, while men tend to increase their care for health with age (p=0.032). Conclusions: Women pay more attention to health than men, regardless of age. Moreover, their care for health rises along with their BMI. Men become concerned about their health when they are older or when they start having problems with body mass. The findings suggest that it would be worth to initiate a pro-health educational plan directed at young men.