Quality-of-life outcomes of a weight management program for adolescents based on motivational interviewing.

OBJECTIVE: To compare motivational interviewing (MI) with conventional care regarding the health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) of adolescents with overweight/obesity.

METHODS: RCT with parallel design, involving two groups: intervention group (MI group [MIG]) and control group (conventional intervention group [CIG]). The intervention included three 30-minute interviews 3 months apart.

OUTCOME: Change in Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) scores. A mixed repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to assess group versus time interactions.

RESULTS: Eighty-three participants finished the protocol (82% girls). MIG participants showed a significant average increase (+4.7) on the Psychosocial (t[41] = -2.388, p = .022, d = .37) and Emotional Subscales (+5.1) (t[41] = 5.733, p < .001, d = .88). CIG participants showed a significant average decrease on the Psychosocial (-6.1) (t[40] = 5.733, p < .001, d = .90), Emotional (-14.1) (t[40] = 7.249, p < .001, d = 1.13) and Social Subscales (-3.8) (t[40] = 3.782, p = .001, d = .59) and on the Total Score (-4.4) (t[40] = 3.535, p = .001, d = .55) CONCLUSION: MI improved HRQoL among overweight adolescents participating in a weight management program.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: MI increases HRQoL and has the potential to benefit weight management programs for adolescents.