Stages of change and health-related quality of life among employees of an institution

BACKGROUND: Transtheoretical Model of change has been used successfully in promoting behaviour change.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationships between health-related quality of life (HRQoL) scores with the stages of change of adequate physical activity and fruit and vegetables intake.

DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among employees of the main campus and Engineering campus of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) during October 2009 and March 2010.

MAIN VARIABLES STUDIED: Data on physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake was collected using the WHO STEPS instrument for chronic disease risk factors surveillance. The Short Form-12 health survey (SF-12) was used to gather information on participants' HRQoL. The current stages of change are measured using the measures developed by the Pro-Change Behaviour Systems Incorporation.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: One way ANOVA and its non-parametric equivalent Kruskal-Wallis were used to compare the differences between SF-12 scores with the stages of change.

RESULTS: A total of 144 employees were included in this analysis. A large proportion of the participants reported inadequate fruits and vegetable intake (92.3%) and physical activity (84.6%). Mean physical and mental component scores of SF-12 were 50.39 (SD = 7.69) and 49.73 (SD = 8.64) respectively. Overall, there was no statistical significant difference in the SF-12 domains scores with regards to the stages of change for both the risk factors.

CONCLUSIONS: There were some evidence of positive relationship between stages of change of physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake with SF-12 scores. Further studies need to be conducted to confirm this association.