Background

The TEnT PEGS framework is a behavior change communication toolkit which has been shown to be useful in increasing health professional trainees’ skills and knowledge about obesity-related behavior change techniques. There is no version of the behavioral change intervention toolkit in Spanish. Therefore, the objectives of this study were 1) to translate the TEnT PEGS framework into Spanish and apply it to a Spanish nursing student population; 2) To analyze whether training with the Spanish toolkit (DEPREMIO) had a positive impact on students’ skills in encouraging obesity-related behavioral change.

Methods

First year nursing students (n=95) attended two face-to-face (2 hours per session) obesity management training sessions. A specifically designed pre-post test was carried out. Data were collected using an ad-hoc questionnaire of fourteen items, ten of them evaluated the student’s knowledge and attitude about behavior change techniques, and four evaluated the student’s perception of their skills in developing different strategies.

Results

Training significantly increased most students’ knowledge and attitudes with a 0.05 level of significance and effect sizes were between 0.36 and 0.77. It also increased students’ skills, although not to any significant extent.

Conclusion

The DEPREMIO toolkit helped nursing students to acquire more knowledge, attitudes and skills in obesity management. It therefore seems that this adaptation is an acceptable and feasible training tool for the Spanish nursing student population.