ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1656877
Public awareness of obesity causes, complications, and treatment methods in a representative sample of adults in Poland
Provisionally accepted
Kuba Bartłomiej Sękowski1
Agnieszka Mazurek1
Zuzanna Grześczyk-Nojszewska1
Mateusz Jankowski1Agnieszka Kamińska2Agata Olearczyk3
Andrzej Silczuk4*
Justyna Grudziąż-Sękowska1- 1School of Public Health, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Warsaw, Poland
- 2Ophthalmology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Collegium Medicum, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
- 3Health Innovation Unit, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Warsaw, Poland
- 4Department of Environmental Psychiatry, Faculty of Life Sciences, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
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Introduction: Obesity is a growing public health problem. This study aimed to assess public awareness of obesity causes, complications, and treatment methods in a representative sample of adults in Poland. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in May 2025 among a representative sample of 1,088 Polish adults using a computer-assisted web interview (CAWI). The structured questionnaire assessed attitudes towards obesity with 10 different questions. Results: Most respondents (84.8%) correctly identified obesity as a disease. Lifestyle factors—lack of physical activity (82.4%) and unhealthy diet (73.9%)—were the most frequently reported causes. Complications such as type 2 diabetes (81.1%) and hypertension (79.2%) were well recognized, but awareness of conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome (17.3%) and asthma (24.7%) was limited. Increased physical activity (86.9%) and diet (86.7%) were widely acknowledged as treatment methods, while fewer participants recognized pharmacotherapy (34.9%) or bariatric surgery (51.6%). Gender, education, and self-reported economic status significantly (p<0.05) influenced awareness patterns. In multivariable analysis, female gender was associated with higher recognition of obesity as a disease (aOR: 1.62; 95%CI: 1.15-2.27; p=0.005), while adults aged 30–39 showed lower recognition (aOR: 0.59; 95%CI: 0.37-0.96; p=0.04). Conclusions: There is an urgent need for tailored public health education in Poland that emphasizes the multifactorial nature of obesity, addresses knowledge gaps in treatment options, and reduces social stigma. Strategic interventions must consider demographic and socioeconomic differences to improve population-level obesity literacy and outcomes.
Keywords: Obesity, Health Literacy, Disease awareness, Socioeconomic Factors, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Diet, lifestyle
Received: 17 Jul 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sękowski, Mazurek, Grześczyk-Nojszewska, Jankowski, Kamińska, Olearczyk, Silczuk and Grudziąż-Sękowska. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Andrzej Silczuk, Department of Environmental Psychiatry, Faculty of Life Sciences, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
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