Effect of Health Education Intervention on Promoting Healthy Lifestyles for Undergraduate Female Students in Saudi Arabia

Effect of Health Education Intervention on Promoting Healthy Lifestyles for Undergraduate Female Students at Northern Border University in Saudi Arabia

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Saudi Arabia has seen a more astonishing rise in obesity. Young females have a considerable prevalence of unhealthy dietary practices and lack of knowledge about healthy and energy-dense foods. Additionally, in Saudi Arabia, the levels of physical inactivity ranged from about one-third to as high as 70% of the population. The current study aims to determine the effects of combined health education and motivational message intervention on promoting healthy lifestyles and body composition markers for undergraduate female students who suffer from obesity at Northern Border University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

A cluster randomized controlled study will be conducted among 250 undergraduate female students aged (18-24) in Northern Border University. The intervention and control faculties will be selected and allocated randomly. The intervention group will have six weeks of fortnightly six sessions (45 minutes), while the control group will have their regular curriculums and normal physical activity routine. The research instruments include socio-demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, and questionnaires about knowledge, attitude, and practice of obesity, physical activity, dietary intake, dietary quality, diet and eating behaviour, and disordered eating. Data will be collected from intervention and control groups at baseline, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up after the intervention. Data will be analyzed by using the (SPSS) software version 26. Descriptive statistics will be used to distribute and summarize the data. A Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) will be used to test the effect of the intervention program for the selected variables (outcomes) between and within the group at baseline, six weeks, and one month after intervention, which is adjusted for clustering.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Female undergraduate students.
• Saudi students.
• Aged between 18-24 years.
• Categorized with a BMI greater than 25.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Pregnant students
• Students with diseases on treatment such as asthma, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, fractures, cirrhosis, or other diseases.
• Students with any medical condition who not allowed to do physical activity.