THE USE OF NOMINAL GROUP TECHNIQUE IN PROMOTION OF HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

Abstract

The nominal group technique (NOT) was used as part of a needs assessment of a health promotion project on healthy lifestyle behavior. Two aspects of healthy lifestyle behaviors which were physical exercise and healthy diet were selected by the participants. Two NOT groups were carried out simultaneously by two facilitators. A Likert scale of 1 -10 was used to rank the importance of ideas generated during the discussion. The level of group support was ranked by the median while the level of agreement was ranked by the mean absolute deviation from the median. The representativeness of the NOT group was assessed with the subjects who did not participate in the NOT procedure. The level of agreement was observed to be higher in the NOT group for both the physical exercise and diet groups. The reasons could be due to clarification and discussion which were carried out in the NOT group. The rank order of the exercise group did not differ in the NOT and the survey groups (Mann-Whitney U test, z= 1.65, P=O. 2) , however the diet group showed different ranking with higher ranking from the survey group (Mann-Whitney U test, z= 1 .33, p=0.02). This could be due to the higher ranking assigned by the subjects in the survey group. Despite the difference in the ranking order in one of the groups, the researchers felt that the NOT outcomes are still representative of the larger group and will generate more information in developing a questionnaire in the planning and implementation of the health promotion program.