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Author Notes:

Cindy L. Salazar-Collier, cindy.collier@tamiu.edu

The writing and first draft of the manuscript was led by MM. MM and CS-C completed data analyses and JP helped with the topic guide, data collection and review of the manuscript. AW, EC, and BR provided critical revisions and EC and BR provided conceptual guidance throughout this project. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

We would like to thank The Challenge participants, The Challenge Team, the City of Brownsville, and all the Tu Salud ¡Si Cuenta! staff at UTHealth School of Public Health in Brownsville. We are grateful for their continued dedication to improving the health and lives of Rio Grande Valley residents through community-health initiatives. Thank you to the team at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine Office of the Associate Dean of Research for awarding research funds to complete this project.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Subjects:

Research Funding:

Funding for The Challenge comes in part from the City of Brownsville, local sponsors and UTHealth.

This study was partially supported by the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, which is funded by National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Award no. UL1 TR003167 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences or the National Institutes of Health.

Funding for analysis software and transcription services were provided by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine Office of the Associate Dean of Research.

Keywords:

  • Science & Technology
  • Life Sciences & Biomedicine
  • Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
  • motivation
  • self-determination
  • behavioral regulation
  • health promotion
  • obesity
  • weight loss
  • PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY
  • OBESITY EPIDEMIC
  • LOSS MAINTENANCE
  • PUBLIC-HEALTH
  • PREDICTORS
  • WOMEN
  • BEHAVIORS
  • SUPPORT
  • SUCCESS
  • ADULTS

Motivation for weight loss among completers of a free community-based weight loss program in a US-Mexico border region: A self-determination theory perspective

Tools:

Journal Title:

FRONTIERS IN PUBLIC HEALTH

Volume:

Volume 10

Publisher:

, Pages 652271-652271

Type of Work:

Article | Final Publisher PDF

Abstract:

This study explores the perceptions and motivation for weight loss among participants who completed a free community-based weight loss program in a predominantly Hispanic and low-income region along the US-Mexico border using a Self-Determination Theory (SDT) perspective. This manuscript is timely as qualitative research on the effect of motivation as a factor in behavioral interventions to reduce overweight or obesity is currently lacking. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants (80%, n = 16 female) who completed a community weight-loss intervention to assess motivation for weight loss and participating, and the role of social support and self-efficacy in weight loss. Directed content analysis was used with SDT guiding the questions and subsequent theme analysis. The findings communicate perspectives of participants relevant to 8 prominent themes. The regulation types and constructs related to SDT included: non-regulation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation, and intrinsic regulation as well as competence and relatedness. Participants mentioned external sources of motivation, such as wanting to improve their physical appearance, and motivation due to financial incentives. Fewer participants reported intrinsic motivators, which the literature suggests are more likely to create lasting change and improved health behaviors. Understanding the motivation for behavior change and completion of weight loss programs is essential to help participants reach their goals effectively and sustain weight loss. A greater emphasis during weight loss programs on the motives for individuals to lose weight may help improve outcomes in weight-loss interventions. Additionally, increasing strategies targeted at enhancing intrinsic motivation for weight loss may be beneficial.

Copyright information:

© 2022 Martinez, Salazar-Collier, Pena, Wilkinson, Chavarria and Reininger.

This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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