Abstract
Many middle-aged women are facing problems with overweight, which is a risk
factor for cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Key determinants
are physiological changes and food consumption and exercise. Controlling overweight
requires appropriate self-care. Self-efficacy would help middle-aged women to have confidence
that they are capable of appropriate practices. This study was aimed at identifying
the relationships between self-efficacy and practices to control the weight of women
aged 40-60 years. Three hundred and thirty-three middle-aged women who attended the
Golden Age Clinic of the Bandung Crown Prince Hospital in Udon Thani Province were
randomly recruited. Data were collected using a questionnaire on self efficacy and overweight
controlling practices for middle-aged women. The questionnaire was modified
from the questionnaire developed by Rawicha Hongrojchanpak, which used Cronbach
alpha coefficient for the self-efficacy part at 0.82.
The results indicated that the middle-aged women had high levels of overall selfefficacy.
The self-efficacy of food consumption and exercise were also at high levels. Most
of the middle-aged women (70.3%) had high to very high self-efficacy in eating fiber-rich
vegetables, walking instead of using vehicles for short distances (62.2%), not drinking
alcohol to relieve stress (60.7%) and drinking water rather than sweet soda (59.5%).
Their overall practices for controlling overweight were at a high level. They usually
and often did not eat fast food (72.1%), walked instead of using vehicles for short distances
(64.6%), avoided eating sweets (64.3%), did not drink alcohol (64.0%), avoided
eating carbohydrates (63.7%) and did exercises during their free time (61.3%).
The self-efficacy of these middle-aged women had a moderate relationship with
overall overweight practices with regard to food consumption behavior and exercise (r=
0.65, r=0.60 and r=0.58 respectively). However, most of the middle-aged women had
problems concerning self-efficacy and overweight controlling practices in avoiding highcalorie
foods, and seldom exercising, which resulted in their inability to control their
weight. It is essential to modify health promotion activities which emphasize self-efficacy
and continuity of appropriate overweight controlling practices among midldle-aged
women.
