Development and effects of exercise behavior promotion program Based on transtheoretical model in Obese undergraduates

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the effects of exercise behavior promotion program in obese university students. Methods: A non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. The study comprised 103 obese university students. The participants were recruited from two universities in G city. Of the 103 participants, 51 were assigned to the non-equivalent experimental group, and the remaining 52 to the control group. The 12-weeks program comprised 7 group lectures, 4 small group discussions, and 12 sessions of 1-to-1 personal coaching via mobile appliances. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 program. At the 7th and 12th week of the regimen. The non-equivalent experimental group reported significantly higher posttest scores depicting changes in the behavior towards exercise, decisional balance in exercise (pros and cons), sense of exercise self-efficacy, time and set execution count of exercise, and physiological marks (i.e. body mass index, body fat rates, and abdominal obesity rates). These findings indicated that the exercise behavior promotion program based on transtheoretical model was effective in improving the physiological markers in obese undergraduates.