Obesity, Hope, and Health: Findings from the HOPE Works Community Survey

According to hope theory, hope is defined as goal-directed thinking in which people perceive that they can find routes to
desired goals and the motivation to use those routes. The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between hope
and body mass index and hope and self-rated health among women completing a community survey conducted in four rural counties
in eastern North Carolina. The survey was administered as part of Hope Works, a participatory, community-led intervention
program to improve weight, health and hope among low-income women in rural North Carolina. Survey data from 434 women were
analyzed. In multivariate models adjusting for age, race, education and income, higher hope was positively related to self-reported
health (OR:0.92; 95% CI: 0.89–0.95) and negatively related to BMI (P < 0.01). These results indicated that women who reported better self-rated health also had higher hope scores and women who
were heavier had lower hope scores. While these findings are exploratory, they suggest directions for further research. State-based
hope is considered to be a characteristic that is malleable and open to development. Future interventions should examine the
importance of hope as a construct to examine in weight loss studies. For example, programs could be designed to increase hope
by focusing on goal setting and providing support, information and resources to help women work toward their goals.