Date of Award

4-2016

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Sociology

First Advisor

El - Sayed EI -Aswad

Second Advisor

Awad Ibrahim

Third Advisor

Hamzeh Dodeen

Abstract

This Dissertation is concerned with the problem of obesity in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This UAE has a high prevalence of obesity (Hajat, Harrison & Al siksek 2012 :909) This Dissertation provided recommendation to improve obesity interventions in the UAE by exploring the body image attitudes (how people think and feel about their bodies and the bodies of others) of young ,Emirati men. The sample was 340 Emeriti citizen men between the ages 18-29from all seven emirates. The data was collected through a survey and individual and focus –group interviews. The prevalence of overweight and obesity of the of the survey sample was 28.9% and 19%repectively.Two thirds of the survey sample consumed fast food (16%bconsummed it daily and 38.8%consumed it several times per week). Concerning physical activity, 43.3% of the sample either rarely or never were doing physical activity or only practicing on a “light” basis. The most commonly mentioned influences on body image attitudes of young Emirati men were religion, occupation, marriage, region, friends, technology, gym, fashion and media. The top three most important influences were religion, Marriage and occupation respectively. The percentage of survey participants who indicated satisfaction with their bodies was 68.3%. In light of this new data, I recommend designing obesity interventions with more health messaging in an Islamic context, targeting married men to prevent post-marriage weight gain a campaign to prepare young Emeriti men for employment focusing on their appearance as well as expanding the health promotion that already exists in workplaces. This work contributes new knowledge and enlightens readers about the body image attitudes of an understudied group; young Emeriti man. It also literature that could be useful to future obesity research in the UAE.

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