Pershing Mandy L, Zhong Lingzi, Ariotti Anthony, Dwenger Kaitlyn, McCarty Maddie, Freer Phoebe, M Ozanne Elissa
Department of Population Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, College of Health, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
Womens Health Rep (New Rochelle). 2024 Sep 6;5(1):624-631. doi: 10.1089/whr.2024.0093. eCollection 2024.
Lifestyle change programs (LCPs) are effective in helping people adopt healthy lifestyles and maintain healthy weight for disease prevention. LCPs are known to be underutilized, but the nuances surrounding women's interest in using these programs for disease prevention need to be further explored so that enrollment and retention in these programs can be improved.
The purpose of this study was to explore women's interest in and knowledge of LCPs and identify their motivators and barriers to joining these types of programs through a survey. The survey was administered both online and in person. The survey had 22 questions and included demographics, medical and family history, knowledge and interest in LCPs, and barriers and motivators to participating in LCPs.
Participants in this study included 1,606 women from 40 to 74 years of age. We found that respondents had limited knowledge about the benefits of LCPs in reducing risks of specific diseases, such as breast cancer and osteoarthritis. Respondents reported low-to-moderate interest in LCPs. We found that their interest in these programs was negatively associated with their weekly physical activity and positively associated with their body mass index (BMI) and the number of reported barriers to joining LCPs. The most common barriers cited were cost, location, time, and too many meetings. In addition, we found that respondents who had or were unsure about their family history of diabetes were more interested in LCPs compared with individuals who had no family history of diabetes. We did not find significant differences in respondent interest in LCPs across ethnicity.
Our study suggests that specific barriers to LCPs-including women's knowledge of such programs-will need to be addressed before enrollment and retention in LCPs are increased.
生活方式改变计划（LCPs）在帮助人们采用健康生活方式和维持健康体重以预防疾病方面是有效的。已知LCPs未得到充分利用，但围绕女性对使用这些计划预防疾病的兴趣的细微差别需要进一步探索，以便提高这些计划的参与率和留存率。
本研究的目的是通过一项调查来探索女性对LCPs的兴趣和了解，并确定她们参与这类计划的动机和障碍。该调查通过线上和线下两种方式进行。调查有22个问题，包括人口统计学、医疗和家族史、对LCPs的了解和兴趣，以及参与LCPs的障碍和动机。
本研究的参与者包括1606名年龄在40至74岁之间的女性。我们发现，受访者对LCPs在降低特定疾病（如乳腺癌和骨关节炎）风险方面的益处了解有限。受访者对LCPs的兴趣为低到中等。我们发现，她们对这些计划的兴趣与每周的体育活动呈负相关，与她们的体重指数（BMI）以及报告的参与LCPs的障碍数量呈正相关。最常提到的障碍是成本、地点、时间和会议太多。此外，我们发现，与没有糖尿病家族史的个体相比，有或不确定自己有糖尿病家族史的受访者对LCPs更感兴趣。我们没有发现不同种族的受访者对LCPs的兴趣有显著差异。
我们的研究表明，在提高LCPs的参与率和留存率之前，需要解决LCPs的特定障碍，包括女性对这类计划的了解。
