The effect of problem solving group counseling on the index of obesity and health habits of obese children

This study was to investigate the effects of problem solving group counseling on the index of obesity and health habits for obese children. Forty seven obese children participated in the study(Exp.=22, Cont.=25). Children were recruited from the forth and fifth grade with higher than 20% of the obesity degree. The problem solving counseling lasted for 10 weeks. In order to evaluate the effects of counseling, physical characteristics and health habits were measured three times; pretest, posttest, and at 10 weeks follow-up. The obtained data was analyzed by chi(2)-test, t-test, and repeated measures ANOVA, using the SPSS WIN 10.0 program. Problem solving group counseling was effective on the physical characteristics(BMI, obesity degree, body fat ratio, waist measurement) and health habits over time. Children in the experimental group controlled their body weight better and reported lower scores in the index of obesity than children in the control group at 10 weeks follow-up. This counseling program helped obese children modify their health habits so that they could decrease their scores in the obesity index. It can be concluded that problem-solving counseling enhanced problem-solving abilities of obese children, which could help modify their ordinary health habits.