Prevention of Eating Habits Associated With Obesity
Condition: Obesity, Adolescent; Eating, Healthy
MeSH terms: Obesity; Pediatric Obesity
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This study evaluates the effectiveness of a Wise Intervention based on a values alignment
      approach to improve obesity-related eating habits in Spanish adolescents. Half of the
      participants will receive the experimental intervention, while the other half will receive a
      control intervention.
    

Detailed description: 
      Obesity in adolescence is associated with physical and mental health problems and predicts
      obesity in adulthood. Adolescence may be an ideal time to target interventions, as this is
      when numerous health-related habits are consolidated. Several universal preventive
      interventions have been carried out in educational centers for the promotion of healthy
      eating habits. However, the results of reviews and meta-analyses have concluded that most are
      not cost-effective for producing long-term changes in the dietary preferences of young
      people. The so-called wise interventions paradigm is an innovative approach to interventions
      that involve a set of rigorous techniques grounded in research to help people improve in a
      variety of life settings. Recently, it has been developed a wise intervention aimed at
      improving adolescents' daily dietary choices. This intervention, called the values alignment
      intervention, focused on the role of marketing on the behavior of children and adolescents
      who are exposed to a relentless barrage of marketing from the food industry. The values
      alignment intervention seeks to neutralize the positive emotional associations with junk food
      that marketing generates and presents the rejection of unhealthy foods in favor of healthy
      alternatives as a way to live up to two values that are important to adolescents: (1) the
      desire to be autonomous from adult control, and (2) the desire for social justice. In two
      randomized controlled trials, it has been demonstrated that the intervention reduced implicit
      positive associations with junk food and substantially improved dietary choices, especially
      in boys. In addition, there were significant differences in attitudinal variables related to
      healthy eating. These promising results suggest that reframing unhealthy eating as
      incompatible with important youth values could be a low-cost solution to produce changes in
      adolescent attitudes and dietary choices. Therefore, the general objective of this project is
      to adapt the values alignment intervention to improve obesity-related eating habits in
      Spanish adolescents and evaluates its effectiveness. It is therefore a highly innovative
      project with great potential for social impact in the field of health promotion.
    

Intervention name(s): Values alignment wise intervention; Educational traditional intervention
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The intervention includes: (1) reading materials, such as recent journalistic works that expose the deceptive and manipulative marketing practices of food companies and the harmful effects of these practices on society, with particular emphasis on harm to young children and the economically disadvantaged. Stories from other young people will also be included in order to contribute to the perception of widespread outrage and to suggest how that outrage can be channeled into taking a stand against the injustice perpetrated by food companies by eating less unhealthy or healthier food; (2) writing exercises, such as a story with a brief statement of what the participants would tell a younger child about the ads; and (3) an interactive activity, called "Make It Real" in which they are shown pictures of food ads and allowed to write and draw about them, making whatever changes (e.g., crossing out and substituting words) they feel necessary to make the ad "real" (i.e., no longer misleading).; The educational intervention includes information on nutrition and physical exercise. It includes reading and writing exercises.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: A randomized controlled trial with two groups will be used. Randomization will be done by clusters, using the classroom as the unit. First, the schools will be selected according to their characteristics. Then, for each school and grade, half of the classrooms will be randomly assigned to the experimental condition (values alignment condition) and the other half to the active control condition (traditional educational intervention) in parallel for the duration of the study.
Masking: Double (Participant, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Adolescence; Prevention; Healthy food intake; Unhealthy food intake; Wise intervention