A Pilot Study of the Lifestyle Questionnaire for Weight Management Shows Scores Significantly Associate With Weight Trajectory. Issue 6 (November 2018) - Anderson, Christopher D.
Context . An instrument is needed to facilitate a brief, but effective, counseling interaction between a patient and a provider. Such an instrument should raise patients' awareness of their behavioral patterns and indicate their likelihood of weight loss statistically. Objective . To determine if the Lifestyle Questionnaire–Weight Management (LQ-WM) contains statistical properties that discriminate subjects' weight trajectories. Design and Participants . A convenience sample of 269 college students at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, were administered the LQ-WM and a weight history questionnaire. Main Outcome Measure . A Lifestyle Score was created by subtracting the amount of self-reported unhealthy behaviors from the amount of healthy behaviors in the previous week. Results . The Lifestyle Score was significantly different among subjects who reported recently losing, maintaining, or gaining weight recently ( P < .001) and in the previous year ( P < .05). The Lifestyle Score was also significantly different among individuals losing weigh rapidly, moderately, and slowly ( P < .05). Conclusions . This pilot study of the statistical properties of the LQ-WM supports that higher Lifestyle Scores associate with weight loss cross-sectionally. Future studies should examine its statistical properties longitudinally and with diverse samples to assess its suitability for clinical practice.