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

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Obesity; Eating Disorders
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Body Project

Detailed Description

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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 432
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Oregon
    • Eugene, Oregon, United States, 97403
      • University of Oregon
    • Eugene, Oregon, United States, 97401
      • Northwest Christian University
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
      • University of Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19122
      • Temple University
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
      • Drexel University
  • Texas
    • Austin, Texas, United States, 78712
      • University of Texas at Austin
    • Georgetown, Texas, United States, 78626
      • Southwestern University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Brochure Condition; Participants in this condition receive an educational brochure about healthy body image via post-mail.	Behavioral: Body Project; 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.
Experimental: Group Condition; 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; 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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	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

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Oregon Research Institute
• Collaborators: University of Texas at Austin; Drexel University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Meghan Butryn, Ph.D., Drexel University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Stice E, Desjardins CD, Rohde P. Young women who develop anorexia nervosa exhibit a persistently low premorbid body weight on average: A longitudinal investigation of an important etiologic clue. J Psychopathol Clin Sci. 2022 Jul;131(5):479-492. doi: 10.1037/abn0000762. Epub 2022 Jun 2.
• Stice E, Rohde P, Shaw H, Desjardins C. Weight suppression increases odds for future onset of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and purging disorder, but not binge eating disorder. Am J Clin Nutr. 2020 Oct 1;112(4):941-947. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqaa146.
• Stice E, Desjardins CD, Rohde P, Shaw H. Sequencing of symptom emergence in anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and purging disorder and relations of prodromal symptoms to future onset of these disorders. J Abnorm Psychol. 2021 May;130(4):377-387. doi: 10.1037/abn0000666.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: April 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): February 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 18, 2010
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 18, 2010
• First Posted (Estimate): May 20, 2010

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): September 30, 2016
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 29, 2016
• Last Verified: September 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Obesity; Female; Eating Disorders; Body Dissatisfaction
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Pathologic Processes; Disease; Feeding and Eating Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: MH086582