The development and evaluation of lighten up, an Australian community-based weight management program.
Unlabelled: Programs of widely ranging size were conducted successfully in seven localities and thus the program was considered an operational success. The reductions in weight, blood pressure, and waist and hip measurements observed at the 3-month follow-up compared well with reports of other commu...
| Publicado en: | American Journal of Health Promotion Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 8 - 12 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Sage Publications Inc.
1998 Sep-Oct
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=107223511&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 107223511 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 08901171 0H4 jtl: American Journal of Health Promotion issn: 08901171 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: 1998 Sep-Oct vid: 13 iid: 1 pid: 344 pub: Sage Publications Inc. place: Thousand Oaks, California artinfo: ui: 107223511 107223511 NLM10186935 1999071182 10.4278/0890-1171-13.1.8 NLM10186935 107223511 ppf: 8 ppct: 4 formats: tig: atl: The development and evaluation of lighten up, an Australian community-based weight management program. aug: au: Harvey PWJ Steele J Bruggemann JN Jeffery RW Harvey, P W Steele, J Bruggemann, J N Jeffery, R W affil: Australian Centre for International and Tropical Health and Nutrition, University of Queensland, Australia sug: subj: Weight Reduction Programs Evaluation Australia Data Analysis, Statistical Data Analysis Software Process Assessment (Health Care) Paired T-Tests P-Value Descriptive Statistics Logistic Regression Adult Male Female Human Adult: 19-44 years Male Female ab: Unlabelled: Programs of widely ranging size were conducted successfully in seven localities and thus the program was considered an operational success. The reductions in weight, blood pressure, and waist and hip measurements observed at the 3-month follow-up compared well with reports of other community-based programs. Almost all participants evaluated the program highly and reported positive changes in behaviors related to food and exercise. Qualitative data indicate that the coordinators developed a sense of ownership of the program--which will be vital to its sustainability. Rapport between coordinators and participants was more easily established in smaller programs than in larger ones and was an important underlying determinant of retention rates.Significance: The Lighten Up program integrates environmental and individual strategies to facilitate changes towards a positive, lifestyle approach to long-term weight management. The program aims to establish sustainable social support networks with effective links to health services. This study has demonstrated that, with appropriate training and resources, existing public sector, primary health care personnel with no previous experience in health promotion can implement the program successfully in several communities concurrently. In the Australian context, this program can play an important role as one strategy in a range of interventions required to address the issue of obesity. The stepped-care model described by Brownell proposes that program options of varying intensity, and thus cost, be available to meet the variety of needs of overweight people who wish to lose weight. The Lighten Up program was close to the midpoint of that range in that it combined population strategies with one-on-one contact with health care personnel.Limitations: Participants in the study were self-selected people who had acted quickly to enroll in the program, and it is therefore likely that the sample was overrepresented with early adopters who may have been more successful than others would have been. We cannot tell from this developmental study whether or not the program will appeal to population groups known to be at high risk for obesity. This is an important question that needs to be addressed in future research. No control group was included in the design and thus we cannot be sure the benefits experienced by the participants resulted from the program. However, process evaluation data indicate that nothing that might explain the findings, other than the program, occurred in the communities during the time of the study. Further important issues to be evaluated include: the long-term maintenance of weight loss; whether or not the program will reach targeted populations, particularly groups of low socioeconomic status; and the extent to which the public health staff will maintain enthusiasm for the training and the programs. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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