Suggested index of evaluating the “SE” level of obese students among a sample at Middle Technical University in Baghdad City
Authors: Mecheser Abdullah E. 
Published: January 2025

Objectives: The aim of the study was to identify the components of self-esteem among obese university students from different academic levels.

Methodology: A descriptive study was conducted between September 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022 to assess the level of self- assessments of obese students at the university level in a non-probability purposive sample. The study sample was selected from different grades of Middle Technical University in Baghdad city and consisted of 78 students (44 males, 34 females) and a control group of 22 students (8 males, 14 females). According to the pilot study, the results of the reliability coefficient index showed a very high level of reliability according to the Cronbach alpha internal consistency scale, which reflects the validity of the current research for all members of the community. Descriptive statistics (observed frequencies, percentages, mean score, standard deviation, and relative sufficiency) as well as methods of inferential statistics (related rates, “odds ratio”, and contingency coefficients) were used to evaluate the self-assessments.

Results: The suggested self-esteem index in all examined domains in the light of “related rates” clearly showed that the feeling of anxiety was fivefold and the feeling of depression was fourfold in the obesity sample compared with the control group. In addition, the results showed that the obesity sample had a sevenfold increase in stress perception disorder compared with the control group. Moreover, the results revealed a sixfold increase in feeling-down self-esteem in the obesity sample compared with the control group. Furthermore, the results showed a similarity of daily activity between the two samples with an apparent weakness of social interaction of individuals in the obesity sample with low power (11) compared with the control group. Finally, the study recorded a highly significant correlation (p < 0.01) between the overall mean score resulting from the redistribution of the (lower/upper) cutoff point for evaluating the proposed measure and most of the demographic component indicators in the obesity sample.

Conclusion: The suggested SE index for all studied domains showed that obese students had high levels of anxiety and depression five and four times higher than the control group, respectively. They study also reveals that obese students experience seven times higher levels of stress than people in the control group. Additionally, the findings showed that obese people had six times higher levels of feeling-down (“SE”) than the control group. Furthermore, daily activities of the two samples were similar, but the social interactions of the obese sample were weaker by a low power of 11 times than that of the control group. Finally, the results of the correlation coefficient showed a highly significant correlation at p < 0.01 between the overall mean of the score obtained by redistributing the (upper/lower) cutoff point to assess the suggested measure, and that with the majority of the components of demographic indicators in the obese sample.