Evaluation of stages of change model in intervention on risk factors of chronic diseases among farmers

Objective To evaluate the effect of the stages of change(SOC) model in the intervention on chronic disease prevention for exploring effective intervention method.Methods A total of 1 000 farmers in two villages of Tianjin area were selected and divided into trial group and control group(500 farmers in each group).The SOC model was adopted to divide the subjects into five stages according to their different extents of health knowledge and behavior.Then different nutritional interventions were administered to the subjects at five different stages in trial groups,respectively.After the intervention,SOC model was used to evaluate the stages of change in behavior and to compare the changes of physical and biochemical examination.Results After the intervention,the awareness rate and behavior change rate in healthy lifestyle among the farmers in trial group were improved.The rates of smoking and alcohol drinking dccreased from 33.6% and 50.2% to 21.3% and 33.6%,respectively; the body mass index decreased from 24.07±4.16 to 23.69±3.15; the systolic blood pressure decreased from 124.90±20.66 mmHg to 122.89±15.36 mmHg,the diastolic blood pressure from 81.47±13.53 mmHg to 79.37±9.39 mmHg,and the total cholesterol from 5.43±1.12 mmol/L to 4.87±0.82 mmol/L compared with those of before the intervention.Conclusion The stages of change model could be applied in the intervention on risk factors of chronic diseases among farmers.