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Obesity is a Chronic Disease! A Nurse Practitioner’s Look at Raising Awareness and Addressing Self-Efficacy in Obesity Self- Management in Rural New Brunswick

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Abstract
Background: The Canadian health care system is drowning in efforts to provide adequate services. One in three Canadians are considered overweight or obese. It is essential to recognize obesity as a chronic disease as it can be a leading precursor to subsequent multi-complex conditions. Attributing to this epidemic is not recognizing the importance for obesity related discussions and offering obesity structured programs. Purpose: To increase awareness obesity is a chronic disease and to raise one’s self-efficacy in obesity self-management of healthy lifestyles to improve in primary care outcomes. Methods: A Nurse practitioner led quality improvement project in Southern New Brunswick Canada; trained staff at a rural community health center in Obesity Canada’s 5AsT framework, recruited overweight or obese participants to participate in an obesity self-management online program using the evidence-based Heart and Stroke Foundation toolkit ‘Healthy Weight Action Plan' and offered weekly telephone/email support. Each weekly session focused on increasing one’s self-efficacy to motivate participants towards long-term self-management of lifestyle changes. Results: A paired t test showed a significant improvement in the pre and post intervention scores of the General Self-Efficacy scale (p=.006), the Eating Self-Efficacy Brief scale (pConclusion:Directing focus towards increasing one’s self-efficacy through structured, self-management practices, along with telephone support can improve health outcomes, effectively help address the obesity epidemic and its health care related complications. Nurse practitioners are ideal professionals to link evidence-based practices to clinical settings.
Type
Capstone Project (Campus Only)
Date
2023-05
Publisher
License
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/