Godefroid KUSUAYI MABELE
Works Manager
Graduate of Advanced Studies in Kinesiology

Thesis presented and defended with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of Kinesiology

Promoter

Professor Dr. Constant NKIAMA EKlSA WA

Co-Promoters

Professor Dr. François LEPlRA BOMPEKA

Professor Dr. Christophe DELECLUSE

SUMMARY

Background: Obesity has become the first non-infectious pandemic in human history. It is considered, along with other risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes mellitus, to be a major public health problem, and its management is a primary objective. The demographic and nutritional transition, factors favoring the growth of this pandemic and its consequences on the well-being of the general population and particularly employees, justifies the implementation of a program of adapted physical exercises in different environments as one of the therapeutic strategies for obesity. Currently, in developed countries around the world, companies are asking workers to adopt a healthy lifestyle to improve the body, mind, and heart. In the Democratic Republic of Congo in general, in companies in particular and specifically among obese employees, the lack of a structured mixed physical exercise program associated with nutritional education adapted to our work context, motivated us on the one hand, to develop and on the other hand, to introduce the latter in order to measure the effects of said program on the behavioral, functional and biological parameters of obese workers in Kinshasa.
Objective: To promote the health of obese workers through a structured, mixed, moderate-to-high-intensity, high-volume physical exercise program, combined with low-calorie nutritional education in the form of advice.

Methods: In a quasi-experimental pre- and post-intervention study, 157 obese workers aged 18 and over were recruited in a simple random manner for a structured mixed physical exercise program of 3 days per week, one hour per day, of moderate to high intensity, associated with nutritional education (low calorie, high fiber and vitamin content) at the Multimodal Freight Management Office of Kinshasa following a reasoned choice, during the period from November 2013 to November 2014, a period of 12 months.