Abstract:
High serum cholesterol levels in members of the Royal Thai Navy are continuously increasing due
to healthdamaging
behavior. This quasiexperimental
study was to examine the effectiveness of the application of
Penders health promotion model for reduction of serum cholesterol levels among members of the Royal Thai
Navy. The sample is composed of 131 Royal Thai Navy sailors who have a serum cholesterol level within the range
of 190290
mg./dl. Participants were randomly divided into an experimental group (n=66) and a control group
(n=65). The experimental group received an application of Penders health promotion model three times within 4
weeks. Activities included raising awareness of the benefits of serum cholesterol reduction, analysing and
managing barriers to action, promoting selfefficacy,
enhancing commitment to practice, and raising interpersonal
influence through support from a commander for 8 weeks of the intervention period. The control group received a
standard Royal Thai Navy program which gives free time for exercise on Wednesday afternoons. The data were
collected by self administered questionnaire 3 times, once before, once during the 4 th , and once during the 8 th week
of intervention. Serum cholesterol testing was done 2 times, once before and once after intervention. Data were
analysed using descriptive statistics; frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics
(including ttest),
repeated measures oneway
ANOVA, and Bonferroni correction.
The results revealed that the experimental group showed significantly higher levels of perceived
benefits of action, selfefficacy,
interpersonal influences from commander support, and commitment to action than
before the experiment, and that of the control group (p < .05). On the other hand, they showed a significantly lower
level of perceived barrier to actions than before the experiment and that of the control group (p < .05). Furthermore,
after the experiment, the health behavior concerning eating and exercise or physical activity of the experimental
group was significantly higher than before and that of the control group (p < .05). Finally, the serum cholesterol,
total cholesterol, and lowdensity
lipoprotein levels of the experimental group were significantly lower than before
the experiment and that of the control group, while the highdensity
lipoprotein levels were higher than before and
that of the control group (p < .05).
It is suggested that a serum cholesterol reduction program that applies Penders health promotion
model can lead to enhancing health perception, selfefficacy,
interpersonal influence that effectively changes
unhealthy behavior. Thus, this program may be applied to health promotion and disease prevention for persons who
have health problems such as high serum cholesterol, diabetes mellitus and hypertension that result from poor
eating behavior and lack of exercise