Effects of Self-Management Program for Health Behavior Modification, Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference among Village Health Volunteers with Abdominal Obesity

Abstract

The purpose of this quasi-experimental research was to study the effects of a health behavior modification and self-management program on body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) of village health volunteers (VHV) with abdominal obesity. The samples were consisted of 70 VHV with abdominal obesity and were divided into 2 groups. The experimental group was 35 VHV’s from Chorphaka subdistrict, Chamni district, Buriram province. The comparison group was 35 VHV’s from Laluad subdistrict, Chamni district, Buriram province. The experimental group received self-management programs with knowledge, self-assessment, goal setting, and actions to lose weight and follow-up visits for 12 weeks. The comparison group received normal services and activities from the health center. The tools used to collect the data were questionnaires, food and exercise record forms, and weight and waist circumference record forms. Data were analyzed using percentages, frequencies, means, standard deviations, t-test statistics, and ANCOVA.

The results showed that, after the program, the experimental group had significantly higher mean scores of knowledge about obesity and weight loss practice than the comparison group (p<0.05). Average BMI and WC among the experimental group were significantly lower when comparing with the before-the-experiment and significantly lower than those from the comparison group (p<0.05). This study showed that self-management program is effective in weight loss behaviors, lowering BMI and WC.