Effect of a Self-Regulation and Social Support Program on Food Consumption of Persons at Risk for Hypertension, Banglane District, Nakhorn Pathom Province

Abstract

This Quasi-experimental research was to investigate the effectiveness of a self-regulation
and social support program on food consumption behaviors of persons at risk for hypertension at
Banglane District, Nakhonpathom Province. The sample was composed of 40 persons at risk for
hypertension, aged 35-60 years, who participated in a self-regulation and social support program. The
experiment lasted 10 weeks. The instruments were interviewing questionnaires. Data analysis was done
by computing frequency, percentage, and standard deviation statistics, including the paired sample ttest
for testing the research hypotheses set. The research results showed that after participating in a
self-regulation and social support program the experimental group had significantly higher levels of
knowledge, perceived self-efficacy and expectation of the benefits from performing appropriate food
consumption behavior, and performed significantly better in term of food consumption behaviors (p-
<0.01). These research results revealed that the self-regulation and social support program
implemented was effective in making persons at risk for hypertension perform more appropriate food
consumption behaviors than before the experiment. Therefore, this type of program can be applied to
persons at risk for hypertension or other chronic diseases in order to promote proper health behaviors
and prevent chronic disease.