A comparative study of the effectiveness of self-management and group management on the amount of weight loss of nurses under low-calorie diet treatment: A simultaneous mixed-methods study

Abstract

Nursing is a profession that is associated with a lot of stress and a risk of being overweight or obese. The purpose of this research was to determine the comparative effectiveness of self-management (self-M) and group management (group-M) on nurses who were following a diet with the aim of proposing a proper planning and a healthy lifestyle for them. This study was a simultaneous mixed-methods design (interventional and qualitative). The participants were all overweight or obese nurses working in teaching hospitals at Guilan University of Medical Sciences in 2019 (n = 96). In the qualitative part, data were extracted from semi-structured interviews. For quantitative data analysis, relevant statistical methods such as Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used. For qualitative data analysis, the conventional content analysis approach was used and Lincoln and Guba’s criteria were applied to ensure the accuracy of the data. In both quantitative and qualitative sections, the results showed that following a diet treatment with group-M is more effective than self-M. The results showed that a healthy lifestyle can be achieved for nurses if they participate in training classes and group programs, which are proven to be effective based on this article and some other studies. Also, since weight gain and obesity, as one of the most important problems of health systems, continue to increase and can impose a heavy economic and social burden on human societies, various general policies should be used and these solutions can range from home to society to prevent and control them.