The Effect of Preventive Nursing Interventions on Reduction of Obesity Risk University Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the effect of an obesity prevention program to decrease obesity risk on university students at risk. Methods: This is a parallel-group randomized controlled trial that is suitable for the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement. The study was carried out at a University in Turkey. The study participants were 70 students (experiments 35 and control 35). The obesity prevention program, which includes education and practices about eating habits and physical activity, and motivational messages, was implemented for 11 weeks. Nutrition training attitude score, exercise nutrition behavior score and exercise benefit/barrier score, body mass index, waist size ratio, and body fat percentage are the outcomes of the research. Dependent samples t-test, independent t-test, and intention to treat (ITT) were used for data analysis. Results: The difference between the experimental group and the control group was statistically significant in attitude and behavior of nutrition exercise (p<.05). The difference between the experimental and control groups was significant in terms of scores on the exercise benefit/barrier scale (p<.05) but not significant on anthropometric measures. In the experimental group, the pre-test and the post-test differed in body mass index (BMI) and it was found that BMI was reduced after the obesity prevention program (p<0.05). Conclusions: This study is important to reduce obesity risk among university students.