Study Design: Cross Sectional Qualitative Study Design Using Focus Group Discussions (fgds)

Study Design: Cross sectional qualitative study design using Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)

Study Site: different states of UK

Study sample: Overweight and non-overweight men and women aged between 25-50 years of age living in the sites mentioned above and who gave consent to participate were recruited for the study.

Sampling Technique and Sample Size: Participants were recruited using stratified purposeful and homogenous sampling technique. The participants were stratified at two levels, first by type of residence namely, slum and non-slum and secondly, by BMI. Those with BMIs over 23.0 kg/ m2 were classified as overweight and those with BMIs under 23.0 kg/ m2 were classified as non-overweight. Homogeneity was in terms of their, gender and socioeconomic status. Thus, the aim was to assemble groups similar in their socioeconomic status so that it would enable participants to feel comfortable with each other thereby creating an atmosphere that would enable free discussions. The number of participants in each FGD ranged from a minimum of 7 to a maximum of 10. The FGDs were run separately for men and women. The figure below illustrates the different FGDs run with each of the categories.

A total of 8 FGDs were conducted, four in the slum and 4 in the non-slum areas.

Methods: The team had established contact with a few key persons in the selected slum and non-slum