Published
2020-08-14
Metrics
Metrics Loading ...

Self-efficacy to maintain a good health, and reduce weight

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/25394150.4080
Section
Artículos
Matar Khalil Shadye Roció Universidad Nacional Abierta y Distancias
Melissa Judith Ortiz Barrero

This article presents a review of studies published during the last fifteen years that are related to self-efficacy in maintaining a good health and reducing weight. Problems associated with overweight and obesity pose serious social, psychological, and physiological difficulties to both to the individuals who suffer from them and to the development of their societies. Cognitive social theory currently offers a broad framework for addressing obesity. Self-efficacy is certainly highlighted as an important mediating mechanism to the success of treatments aimed at health problems and weight reduction. It was identified that the most used instruments to assess expectations of self-efficacy in relation to dietary intake are the Eating Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES) and the Weight Efficacy Life-Style Questionnaire (WEL). It is concluded that the evaluation of personality, and its correspondence with self-efficacy, can be useful in the management of obesity, and that new research is required that allows developing effective treatments to comprehensively improve the physical, emotional and social aspects of the individual, in other words, from a comprehensive biopsychosocial perspective.