Authors (including presenting author) :
Ho WHC (1)
Affiliation :
Physiotherapy Department, Tai Po Hospital
Introduction :
Overweight and obesity are epidemic in population with Severe Mental illness (SMI). Obesity is multifactorial in persons with SMI as they are commonly physically inactive and have unhealthy diets. Besides, many psychotropic medications lead to weight gain by increasing appetite and affecting metabolic system. Traditional weight management face many challenges due to poor compliance to exercise training and poor judgement in health food selection. Thus, Physiotherapy and Dietetics Department have co-organized a “Weight Management Program” with interactive component for psychiatric patients in Tai Po Hospital to promote active and healthy lifestyle.
Objectives :
To equip psychiatric patients with relationship between basic concept of food choice and physical activity calculator and the importance of staying active for weight management.
Methodology :
All female psychiatric patients with stable mental state were invited for the “Enhanced Weight Management Program”. Dietitian and physiotherapist provided education talks jointly every 2 weeks to empower the knowledge on weight management. The education talk includes interactive components, such as interactive games for smart food selection, healthy snacks tasting and providing exercise information with QR code. Patients with obesity are recruited for intensive exercise training, promoting active lifestyle and enhancing daily physical activities by giving pedometer, prescribing specific meal plan.
The readiness to change, physical activity measured by step count, body weight and patient satisfaction survey are conducted before and after the program.
Result & Outcome :
Total 61 patients attended the education talks and all patients reported that the education talk is useful and able to empower them to self-monitoring, promote active lifestyle and selection of healthy food. Overall satisfaction score was 7.9. 10 psychiatric patients with BMI 30.2kg/m2 were recruited for intensive training. They were more readiness to change their exercise and diet habit with slightly increase in readiness ruler from 7.3 to 7.7. There was a significant increase in physical activities with increased step counts from 7824 steps to 9226 steps daily. It is encouraging that patients were able to maintain their body weight during hospital stay.
