Eating Disorders Prevention: An Effectiveness Trial for At-Risk College Students

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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This three-site effectiveness trial will test whether a brief dissonance-based eating disorder prevention program produces intervention effects when college counselors, psychologists, and nurses are responsible for participant recruitment, screening, and intervention delivery under ecologically valid conditions.

Detailed Description
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Threshold and subthreshold eating disorders affect over 10% of young women and are associated with functional impairment, distress, psychiatric comorbidity, medical complications, mortality, and risk for obesity onset. Accordingly, a pressing public healthy priority is to develop effective prevention programs for eating pathology. The proposed project will be the first effectiveness trial to test whether an eating disorder prevention program with strong empirical support from efficacy trials produces effects under ecologically valid conditions among high-risk female college students, which is a vital step toward widespread dissemination of programs developed with NIH funding. The proposed cost-effectiveness analyses and examination of process factors that predict larger intervention effects will also represent novel contributions to the literature.

Official Title
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Eating Disorders Prevention: An Effectiveness Trial for At-Risk College Students

Conditions
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Eating Disorders, Obesity

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Body Project


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: (1) is a registered student at a participating school, (2) self-reports body image concerns Exclusion Criteria: meets DSM-IV criteria for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating disorder
Sexes Eligible for Study
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Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Active Comparator: Brochure Condition<br>Participants in this condition receive an educational brochure about healthy body image via post-mail. | Behavioral: Body Project<br>* Participants in this intervention attend four 1-hour group meetings (one per week for four consecutive weeks) in which they complete a series of written and verbal exercises intended to increase body satisfaction.<br>|
| Experimental: Group Condition<br>Participants in this condition attend four 1-hour group meetings (one per week for four consecutive weeks) in which they complete a series of written and verbal exercises intended to increase body satisfaction. | Behavioral: Body Project<br>* Participants in this intervention attend four 1-hour group meetings (one per week for four consecutive weeks) in which they complete a series of written and verbal exercises intended to increase body satisfaction.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| eating disorder symptoms, risk for future eating disorder and obesity onset |  | 2 years | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| mediators to intervention effects | We will test whether the dissonance program intervention effects are mediated by change in thin-ideal internalization | 2 years | 
| moderators to program effects | We will test whether certain factors moderate program effects (e.g., initial body dissatisfaction level). | 2 years | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Eating Disorders, Obesity, Body Dissatisfaction, Female