Effectiveness of Contingency Management and Systematic Desensitisation as Behaviour Modification Techniques in Reducing Food Consumption Among Obese Students in South West Nigeria

Abstract

Overweight and obesity are growing problems in much of the world. Obesity has a negative impact on health and quality of life. Evidence shows that it is possible to prevent obesity in children and adolescents through limited, school-based programmes that combine the promotion of healthy dietary habits and physical activity. From the perspective of both the individual and society, it is therefore essential to identify strategies for managing this problem. Once present, obesity is difficult to treat, making effective preventive intervention all the more important. This study investigated the effectiveness of Contingency Management and Systematic Desensitization as behaviour modification techniques in reducing food consumption patterns among obese students in South West Nigeria. The study adopted a pre-test, post-test quasi-experimental control group design. Three hypotheses were tested using a 3x2x3 factorial design. Twenty-four students were purposively selected from each of the four co-educational schools with equal proportion of male and female students. The participants were assigned to the two treatments and the control groups randomly. Participation criteria were based on body mass index (BMI) for age on national reference data above 95th percentile. Result shows a significant effect of the treatment (contingency management and systematic desensitization) on students food consumption behaviour reduction (F (2, 94) = 47.240; p<0.05). Moreover, there was a significant difference between contingency management and systematic desensitization with a mean difference of 0.76 and significant at .000 and also a significant difference between contingency management and control with a mean difference of 1.41 significant at .000. There was no significant interaction effect of treatment on body mass index (BMI) and gender. It is therefore recommended that the two approaches could be used to treat obesity among adolescent in Nigeria while counsellors, psychologists, teachers, school administrators and parents whose business among other things is behaviour modification can treat obese students with any of the intervention irrespective of gender and BMI, especially among adolescent.