Abstract
BackgroundChanging lifestyle is challenging and difficult. The Norwegian Directorate of Health recommends that all municipalities establish Healthy Life Centres targeted to people with lifestyle issues. Little is known about the background, experiences and reflections of participants. More information is needed about participants to shape effective lifestyle interventions with lasting effect. This study explores how participants in a lifestyle intervention programme describe previous life experiences in relation to changing lifestyle.MethodsSemi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews were performed with 23 participants (16 women and 7 men) aged 18 – 70 years. The data were analysed using systematic text condensation searching for issues describing participants’ responses, and looking for the essence, aiming to share the basis of life-world experiences as valid knowledge.ResultsParticipants identified two main themes: being stuck in old habits, and being burdened with emotional baggage from their previous negative experiences. Participants expressed a wish to change their lifestyles, but were unable to act in accordance with the health knowledge they possessed. Previous experiences with lifestyle change kept them from initiating attempts without professional assistance. Participants also described being burdened by an emotional baggage with problems from childhood and/or with family, work and social life issues. Respondents said that they felt that emotional baggage was an important explanation for why they were stuck in old habits and that conversely, being stuck in old habits added load to their already emotional baggage and made it heavier.ConclusionsBehavioural change can be hard to perform as psychological distress from life baggage can influence the ability to change. The study participants’ experience of being stuck in old habits and having substantial emotional baggage raises questions as to whether or not Healthy Life Centres are able to help participants who need to make a lifestyle change.
Highlights
Healthy Life Centres are a service offered by the primary health care system that target people who need to change their lifestyle in terms of physical activity, diet and tobacco use to improve their health or prevent unhealthy lifestyles [4]
The aim of this study is to examine how participants in a lifestyle intervention programme describe previous life experiences that are important for lifestyle change when they entered Healthy Life Centre intervention programmes
The participants’ perceptions of barriers to lifestyle changes were categorized into two main themes: they were stuck in old behaviours and habits and that they were burdened by emotional baggage from previous experiences
Summary
The increase in individuals that are overweight, obese and have type 2 diabetes, coincident with reductions in Følling et al BMC Family Practice (2015) 16:73 physical activity and increased high-caloric food intake, are among the most important changes in the Norwegian population from 1986 to 2010, as measured by the population-based HUNT study [5]. In spite of these developments, there has been an improvement in the overall health of the general population, but health behaviour varies systematically with social background [6]. The results from a Healthy Life Centre study in Norway [10] were in line with international findings [11, 12], participants had increased their physical capacity and healthrelated quality of life when the intervention ended [10]
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