Effect of Intervention Educational Programs on Improving Quality of Life among Overweight/Obese University Students in Gaza Strip

Ahmed A. Najim

Faculty of Intermediate Studies, University of Palestine, Gaza, Palestine.

DOI: 10.4236/ojn.2014.412094                

Abstract

Background: Overweight and obesity are among the most frequently encountered multi-factorial disorders in most populations of the world. In addition, to its health impacts, overweight/obesity leads to many health problems which reflect on the university students’ physical, psychological, social and environmental aspects of their quality of life. The study aim was to evaluate the effect of an educational program on improving quality of life of overweight/obese university students in Gaza strip. Materials and Methods: quasi-experimental nonequivalent pretest-posttest control group design utilized in this study 74 and 69 students in the intervention and control group respectively. The study conducted at Islamic university of Gaza and data were collected in two stages before and after five months from the application of the educational program, using interviewing questionnaire and world health organization quality of life-BREF instrument; pre-post test and body mass index were calculated. Results: the study results revealed that overall students’ knowledge for posttest was significantly higher than pretest (p-value ≤ 0.05). Overall, mean score of quality of life after the program was significantly (p-value = 0.001) greater than before and greater than control group for all domains. Conclusion: The study concluded that the health educational intervention program had positive effects on knowledge, practices and attitudes regarding overweight/obesity with improving university students’ mean score of quality of life.

Keywords

Education Program, Quality of Life, Overweight, Obesity, University Students

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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