Abstract
Objective: To identify factors leading to unsuccessful weight loss through the specific health guidance program undertaken by male workers.
Methods: We asked 63 male workers from four corporate health insurance societies in Kanto, Japan who had no change in body weight (<1%) during the six-month specific health guidance program for the participation. We obtained consent from 36 male workers and conducted in-depth interviews for approximately 30 minutes. We undertook a qualitative analysis of the data from 28 males who matched our weight change criteria. We analyzed the transcripts using the grounded theory and the participants were classified according to the category patterns that emerged based on causal factors.
Results: Three categories—“No perception for need,” “Strong sense of give up for work,” “Distrustfulness to the system”—were extracted as background factors from the transcripts. Five categories-e.g., “No sense of critical feeling as own matter”, “Sense of obligation”-were extracted as causal conditions. We sorted participants based on category overlapping until unsuccessful weight loss, and then categories were divided into seven different patterns.
Conclusion: As a result of evaluating the factors related to unsuccessful weight loss of male workers, we identified seven category patterns. “Sense of obligation” and “Objection” of causal conditions, and “Distrustfulness to the system” of background factors were indicated to be unique factors for the specific health guidance program.
