Date of Award

1988

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Michael F. Burnett

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effects of participation by black female paraprofessionals in a weight management workshop on selected indices including dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, exercise practices, eating behaviors, anthropometric measurements and sick leave hours used. Nineteen subjects from one urban site were selected to participate in the workshop and 18 subjects from another urban site served as the comparison group. Data were collected from both groups one week before, one week after and six months following the workshop. Measurements obtained before the workshop showed that the two groups had similar characteristics and pretest scores. Anthropometric measurements indicated that both groups were obese, with an average weight of 185 pounds for the comparison group and 190 pounds for the treatment group. Immediately following the workshop, significant improvements were noted for the treatment group in dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, exercise practices and eating behaviors. No significant changes were noted for the comparison group. Comparison of measurements between the two groups indicated that the treatment group's dietary intake, nutrition knowledge and exercise practices were significantly better than those of the comparison group. The treatment group showed several significant improvements including dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, weight and BMI when measurements at six months were compared to those immediately following the workshop. When measurements at six months were compared to those immediately preceding the workshop, significant improvements were noted for the treatment group on seven of the eight measurements including dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, exercise practices, eating behaviors, weight, BMI and sick leave hours used. No significant improvements were found for the comparison group at either measurement period. Comparison of the two groups six months after the workshop indicated that the treatment group had significantly better measurements for dietary intake, nutrition knowledge, exercise practices, eating behaviors, weight and BMI than the comparison group. Based on these findings, it was concluded that participation in the workshop resulted in improvement of selected indices related to weight management for these subjects.

Pages

146

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.4668

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