Development of Community Empowerment Program for Behavioral Modification of Overweight Muslim Women

Abstract

          The research aimed to develop a community-based behavioral modification program for the overweight Thai Muslim women. Two phase, program development and program evaluation were conducted. Ways of promoting a healthy community and the Ottawa Charter for health promotion were employed as the study framework. The program development phase included three steps and the evaluation phase included two steps. The program content validity evaluation by experts and program testing.

           The new program has three components. First is a program guideline. Second is an activity plan. The third components includes empowering handbooks for leaders and overweight Muslim women. Content validation revealed that the program content and format are academically correct and explicitly appropriate for overweight Muslim women. However, experts suggested adding more information in the program guideline and activity plan, using images instead of text for the handbooks, and using easily understood terms.  The program was tried out in one community, its practicality and ease of use, except for the format of the activity worksheet. For the optimal result, this program will effective if develop teams of empowerment technique and behavioral modification.