Exploring the Effects of Social Media Use and Environmental Factors

August 9, 2017 updated by: Jean Liu, Yale-NUS College

External Eating: An Investigation of Social Media and Environmental Factors Influencing Eating Behaviours

In this protocol, the investigators propose a randomised controlled trail to explore the effects of environmental factors and the use of technology on eating behaviours. The investigators have planned two studies to investigate these effects, one on high school students from Raffles Institution, and the other on the university population in the National University of Singapore.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Participants will be told a cover story that the study explores technological distraction on taste, and asked to complete a taste-evaluation taste of common snacks. One group (intervention group) will be asked to use their personal smartphones to engage in their pre-existing Whatsapp chats while doing the taste test. For the two control conditions, one group will be tasked with reading a neutral article on their personal smartphones while they complete the taste test, while the other group will be asked to complete the taste test without any use of smartphones.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

180

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

13 years to 26 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Normal weight: Body mass index of 18 to 25
  • Have at least occasional breakfast meals (≥ 3 times a week of self-reported consumption of a breakfast meal)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Symptoms / history of any medical or psychiatric conditions
  • Allergies to food products
  • History of eating disorders
  • Excessive exercise (≥ 5 times a week of self-reported exercise)
  • Currently on a special diet or deliberating restricting caloric intake
  • Currently on a weight loss program
  • Smoking or substance abuse

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Whatsapp
Participants will engage in Whatsapp chats on their smartphones during the taste test
Behavioral: Whatsapp
Placebo Comparator: Article
Participants will read a neutral article on their smartphones during the taste test
Behavioral: Article
Active Comparator: No Phone
Participants will not use their phones during the taste test
Behavioral: No Phone

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Amount of food consumed
Time Frame: 20 minutes
Number of grams of cereal eaten
20 minutes

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Hunger ratings
Time Frame: 10 minutes
Self-reported hunger ratings before and after the taste test
10 minutes
Taste ratings
Time Frame: 20 minutes
Self-report on how much they enjoyed the two food products during the taste test
20 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Yale-NUS College

Collaborators

Raffles Institution

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

July 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

July 1, 2018

Study Completion (Anticipated)

July 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 9, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 9, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

August 11, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 11, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 9, 2017

Last Verified

August 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • A-15-170

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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