Psychological Mechanisms Linking Food Insecurity and Obesity

Psychological Mechanisms Linking Food Insecurity and Obesity (Food Mind Pilot Study)

The current pilot study will examine emergent hypotheses by investigating the role of psychological mechanisms in the relationship between food insecurity and obesity. This objective will be achieved via a cross-sectional, observational pilot study collecting quantitative and qualitative data.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Obesity; Psychological

Detailed Description

This pilot study will investigate an emergent risk factor for obesity: food insecurity, which is defined as the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods. While paradoxically linked, numerous studies have shown a significant association between food insecurity and obesity. Moreover, recent narrative works have developed new, untested hypotheses linking food insecurity and obesity positing the causal role of psychological mechanisms. Given this, this mixed method pilot study will collect new psychological data in a sample of food secure and food insecure adults with and without obesity to examine the connections between food insecurity, body weight, and psychological constructs. The overarching objective of the study is to gather pilot data to identify potentially new intervention targets that will be used in future studies to more rigorously investigate the relationship between food insecurity and obesity.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 56

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Louisiana
    • Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, 70808-4124
      • Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 49 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

The target study sample will be 56 food secure and food insecure women and men aged 18 to 49 years with a BMI of 20.0 kg/m2 or greater.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 18-49 years
• BMI ≥ 20.0 kg/m2
• Able to read and write using the English language
• Willing to provide written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Pregnancy

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Delay Discounting	Assessed via the 27-Item Monetary Choice Questionnaire, which measures bias toward smaller, immediate rewards versus larger, delayed rewards. This questionnaire presents participants with a set of 27 choices between smaller, immediate monetary rewards and larger, delayed monetary rewards. Participants who discount the value of the delayed rewards more steeply are considered to be more impulsive. An estimate of a participant's discounting rate (k) is calculated from the pattern of choices. Values of k range from 0.00016 (ln transformation -8.74) to 0.25 (ln transformation -1.39), with higher values indicating a greater preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards. K tends to be skewed, so a natural log (ln) transformation is utilized to approximate a normal distribution for statistical analyses.	Through study completion, an average of 1 hour and 30 minutes at Study Visit 1

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Grit	Assessed using the 8-item Short Grit Scale, which measures trait-level perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Scores range from 1 (not at all gritty) to 5 (extremely gritty).	Through study completion, an average of 1 hour and 30 minutes at Study Visit 1

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Pennington Biomedical Research Center
• Collaborators: National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Candice A Myers, Ph.D., Pennington Biomedicial Research Center

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Myers CA, Beyl RA, Martin CK, Broyles ST, Katzmarzyk PT. Psychological mechanisms associated with food security status and BMI in adults: a mixed methods study. Public Health Nutr. 2020 Oct;23(14):2501-2511. doi: 10.1017/S1368980020000889. Epub 2020 Jun 29.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 5, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 28, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): December 31, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 26, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 14, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): February 22, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 5, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 28, 2020
• Last Verified: January 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Food Insecurity
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Overnutrition; Nutrition Disorders; Overweight; Body Weight; Obesity
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2017-060-PBRC; U54GM104940 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No