Assessing Stages of Readiness to Lose Weight among Overweight and Obese Adolescents using Trans-Theoretical Model

Abstract

Obesity & Control Therapies: Open Access Open Access Mini Review Article mellitus type II, and some types of cancer and sleep apnea [2]. Increasing trend of obesity incidence among children in the Asia-Pacific region has been reported in many studies [3-5]. In Malaysia, the national prevalence of children who were overweight was reported increasing from 5.4% in 2006 to 6.1% in 2011 [6]. Many studies have shown growing interest in applying the Trans-Theoretical Model (TTM) to both the treatment of obesity and its prevention through promoting healthy lifestyles in both the general population and at-risk groups [1]. The TTM provides a conceptual explanation of the processes that individuals need to undergo when modifying problem behaviors or acquiring positive behaviors. It focuses mainly in relation to changing dietary intake and physical activity, in order to achieve a sustainable weight loss. This model includes two levels: i) the Stages Of Change (SOC), which reflects the temporal dimension of the behavior as it been divided into five consecutive stages; and ii) a set of constructs that explain how people evolved along the SOC. The SOC are: the pre-contemplation (do not intend to lose their weight), contemplation (planning to lose their weight within 6 months), preparation (planning to lose their weight over next 30 days), action (have been making an effort by dieting and exercising to lose their weight for less than 6 months), or maintenance (had successfully maintained their desired weight for more than 6 months) [7]. The other four additional TTM constructs are the Processes Of Change (POC), decisional balance, self-efficacy and temptation [7]. POC is a process or strategy that individual engage in attempt to lose weight that related to behavioral or experiential strategies. TTM generally proposes steps in POC to promote health behavior change which is categorized into i) experiential processes: consciousness raising, counter conditioning, dramatic relief, environmental re-evaluation, reinforcement management and ii) behavioral processes: self-liberation, self-reevaluation, social liberation, helping relationships, and stimulus control [8]. The model predicts that experiential processes increased in the contemplation stage whereas behavioral processes increased Abstract Introduction: Assessing the individual's level of readiness to change will help in losing weight and targeting for an ideal body weight. This study was aimed to determine the readiness to lose weight among overweight and obese adolescents using Trans-Theoretical Model (TTM) assessment tool.