Medium-term result of a self-efficacy program for weight control in the Body Mass Index of adolescent schoolchildren

Abstract

Weight variations represent serious problems for any society. The objective of this study is to evaluate the results, in the medium term, of a self-efficacy program for weight control, in terms of height, weight, and body mass index in adolescent schoolchildren. The incidental sample was made up of n = 65 public secondary school students from the municipality of Ciudad Madero-Tamaulipas, who were randomly assigned to the intervened group (n1 = 35) and the control group (n2 = 30). The study design was quasi-experimental. Weight and height measurements were obtained and the BMI was obtained. The results show that both, weight and height presented statistically significant changes at six months in both groups. Regarding the body mass index, it is observed that the control group showed a statistically significant increase and with a good size of the effect, in the direction of being overweight. On the contrary, in the intervened group BMI did not show significant changes, which indicates a maintenance over time of this anthropometric indicator. Based on the above, it is concluded that this program contributes positively to the maintenance of BMI, therefore it can be effective in preventing obesity.