Asian Nurs Res.  2014 Mar;8(1):82-89.

A Web-based Health Promotion Program for Patients with Metabolic Syndrome

• Kang JS
• Kang HS
• Jeong Y

Abstract

PURPOSE
The population of metabolic syndrome is increasing in Korea. The prevalence is related to lifestyle, such as lack of physical activity and irregular diet. Most patients with metabolic syndrome know that lifestyle intervention is important to managing the condition. However, they do not always follow the intervention for various reasons, including lack of knowledge on how to change their lifestyle and lack of accessibility to that knowledge. The purpose of this study was to test the web-based health promotion program we developed.
METHODS
Fifty-six adult workers from eight areas of business were recruited. They all had a confirmed metabolic syndrome diagnosis after being registered at a university hospital for annual health checkups. Twenty-nine workers were assigned to the experimental group, and the others were assigned to the control group. The web-based program was applied to the experimental group as an intervention for 8 weeks.Waist circumference, fasting blood glucose, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and blood pressure were measured before and after the program. Data were analyzed using chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and t test.
RESULTS
There were statistically significant differences between the two groups in waist circumference and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (t = -4.43, p < .001; t = 2.22, p = .031, respectively). Of the 29 participants, 13 (44.83%) in the intervention group had less than two indices for metabolic syndrome.
CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that a web-based program is useful for patients with metabolic syndrome to improve physiologic parameters related to metabolic syndrome. The web-based program may be easily applicable to community as well as clinical setting.

Keyword

health promotion; lifestyle; metabolic syndrome

MeSH Terms

Adult
Blood Glucose/metabolism
Case-Control Studies
Female
*Health Behavior
Health Promotion/*methods/standards
Humans
*Internet
*Life Style
Lipoproteins, HDL/blood
Male
Metabolic Syndrome X/*rehabilitation
Middle Aged
Triglycerides/blood
Waist Circumference
Young Adult
Blood Glucose
Lipoproteins, HDL
Triglycerides