Effect of Motivational Interview on Athropometric Indices and Hypertension in Overweight and Obese Adults

  Overweight and obesity are the most important risk factors for many chronic diseases. Motivational interviewing is a kind of referral-based counseling that helps to resolve doubts about changing health behaviors through creating intrinsic motivation and reinforcing the commitment of individuals. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of motivational interview on anthropometric indices and hypertension in overweight and obese adults. 98 adult obese or overweight adults were randomly divided into two groups of motivational and control interviews through accessible and controlled sampling. Data were collected by measuring or researcher-made questionnaire at the beginning of the study, as well as 10 and 22 weeks after the intervention. Then the collected data were analyzed by SPSS (ver. 24) using Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon and Chi-square tests. The motivational interview group showed a significant improvement in weight (p=0.013) and body mass index (p=0.02) in the 22 weeks post-intervention compared to the beginning of the study. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the study group during the study. The present intervention did not have a significant effect on the blood pressure of the samples. Integration of motivational interviewing in the counseling of the therapeutic diet can lead to effective results in the anthropometric evaluation of overweight and obesity individuals.