The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on Lifestyle, Quality of Life, and Body Mass Index in Overweight Individuals

Abstract

Background: Obesity is a global health problem whose psychological components have been emphasized by researchers. This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on lifestyle, quality of life and body mass index in overweight people. Methods: This study is a clinical trial, based on the entry and exit criteria, 60 people (30 people in the experimental group and 30 people in the control group) were selected from overweight and obese patients who referred to the Iranian Health Clinic in Isfahan. The participants were evaluated in the pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up phase with quality of life questionnaire, SF-12, weight-related lifestyle questionnaire (WEL) and body mass index. The subjects of the experimental group received 10 sessions of 1.5 hours’ therapeutic intervention based on acceptance and commitment for obesity. Analysis of variance with repeated measures was used to analyze the data. Findings: The results showed that therapeutic intervention based on acceptance and commitment on the quality of life and related subscales, lifestyle and its subscales (P < 0.05). The results also showed that by controlling the effect of gender, age and baseline scores, therapeutic intervention based on acceptance and commitment was also effective on body mass index (P < 0.05). Conclusion: By improving psychological factors, the body mass index as well as the quality and lifestyle of overweight and obese people can be improved. © 2025, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences(IUMS). All rights reserved.