Relationship of stages of change to attendance in a diabetes prevention program.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether preintervention stage-of-change measures are indicative of subsequent attendance at diabetes prevention intervention sessions.


METHODS
Cross-sectional.


METHODS
Local community.


METHODS
Seventy-five adult American Indian women participated.


METHODS
Attendance, stage-of-change questions for seven diabetes prevention behaviors, and mean stage-of-change score to reflect the combined stages of change for all behaviors.


METHODS
Univariate analyses for stage-of-change distribution and Fisher's exact test and prevalence ratios for the association between attendance and stage of change.


RESULTS
Participants' readiness for change at baseline was distributed across all stages of change. The most common stage was preparation. There was a significant relationship between the mean stage-of-change scores and attendance. Participants with lower mean stage-of-change scores (mean +/- SE, 3.03 +/- 0.13) were less likely to attend all 5 sessions than those with higher mean stage-of-change scores (mean +/- SE, 3.38 +/- 0.10) (p = .04). Participants in the action category (preparation, action, and maintenance stages) before the intervention were 6.7 (95% confidence interval, 1.0-44.1; p < .01) times more likely to be high attenders than those in the preaction category (precontemplation and contemplation stages) before the intervention.


CONCLUSIONS
Findings from this study suggest that stage of change may be a good predictor of attendance at diabetes prevention intervention sessions and have implications for intervention design and assessment. The mean stage-of-change score may be a more stable estimate of stage of change.
Health Evaluation and Research Office, Department of Family and Community Medicine, School of Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA. Helitzer@salud.unm.edu
Deborah L
DL
Helitzer
Arlana Bobo
AB
Peterson
Margaret
M
Sanders
Janice
J
Thompson
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000379:methods*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004032:Diet; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000523:psychology*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States