Abstract 12900: Behavioral and Psychological Factors Associated with Initial Weight Loss During Long-Term Weight Management Among Women with Abdominal Obesity

Abstract

Introduction: Abdominal obesity is a well-known risk factor for coronary heart disease in women, and weight loss is crucial for the reduction of abdominal obesity. Effective weight loss at the initial stage during long-term weight management may be a triggering factor to motivate overweight and obese individuals toward continuing and maintaining weight loss. Thus, identifying behavioral and psychological factors will be necessary for effective weight loss at the initial stage of weight management.

Hypothesis: We hypothesized that greater changes in health promoting lifestyle, self-efficacy for weight control, depression, and social support would be significantly associated with greater weight loss after a 3-month diet-alone intervention among women with abdominal obesity.

Methods: We analyzed 90 participants who had successfully completed a 3-month diet-alone intervention in a Heart and Weight Management Trial, an ongoing 12-month randomized controlled trial designed to examine the effects of three modes of exercise on cardiometabolic factors and vascular functions. A low-calorie, low-fat diet intervention was initiated for the first 3 months of the 12-month trial across all the three exercise groups. Health promoting lifestyle, self-efficacy for weight control, depression, and social support were measured by the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II, the Weight Efficacy Lifestyle, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Interpersonal Support Evaluation instruments, respectively.

Results: After the 3 month diet-alone intervention, participants experienced a 1.7 kg loss in mean body weight. A multiple regression analysis showed that increases in scores for health promoting lifestyle and self-efficacy for weight control significantly accounted for 21% of the weight loss (beta=-.22, p=.034 and beta=-.29, p=.006, respectively), but changes in depression and social support did not, after adjusting for age, the presence of obesity-related diseases, and menopause.

Conclusions: Among women with abdominal obesity, a health promoting lifestyle and self-efficacy for weight control may be crucial factors to be controlled for initial weight loss during long-term weight management.