Effects of social support and spirituality on weight loss for rural African-American women.

Obesity continues to be an increasing health problem among African-American women. A 10-week weight-loss intervention program designed to address the problem in these women. Two different interventions (spiritually based and nonspiritually based) were tested, and both utilized a pre-test, posttest design On the basis of theories of social support, it was expected that participation in the intervention would produce a significant reduction in weight. In addition, the spiritual-based weight-loss program was hypothesized to produce greater weight reduction than the standard health (non-spiritual) program. The results demonstrated that the average weight and BMI of all participants in either a spiritually-based or a nonspiritually-based program were lower at the completion of the intervention program. In addition, the average weight and BMI loss for the spiritual group was significantly greater than the average weight and BMI loss for the non-spiritual group.