Focusing on Body Functionality After Bariatric Surgery

Does Focusing on Body Functionality Improve Body Image Among Women Who Have Undergone Bariatric Surgery?

This study investigated whether focusing on one's body functionality (i.e., everything the body can do, rather than how it looks) would lead to improvements in body image, self-esteem, and self-kindness among women who have undergone bariatric surgery.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Bariatric Surgery Candidate; Body Image
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Expand Your Horizon

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 103
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Netherlands
  • Limburg
    • Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands, 6200MD
      • Maastricht University
  • Utrecht
    • Huis ter heide, Utrecht, Netherlands, 3712BA
      • Nederlandse Obesitas Kliniek

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Identifying as female, being between 18 and 65 years old, having undergone bariatric surgery 5-7 months prior to the study, and qualifying for standard aftercare at the Nederlandse Obesitas Kliniek (NOK; Dutch Obesity Clinic).

Exclusion Criteria:

• N/A

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention Group; Participants in the intervention group completed the Expand Your Horizon programme (Alleva et al., 2015).	Other: Expand Your Horizon; Expand Your Horizon is an online programme, comprising three 15min writing exercises delivered over the course of 1 week. In each writing exercise, participants are asked to describe the functions of their body, and why those are personally meaningful to them.
No Intervention: Comparison Group; Participants in the comparison group did not complete any intervention (i.e., this was a waitlist comparison group).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in appearance satisfaction over time (pretest, posttest, follow-ups)	Appearance satisfaction was assessed using the Body Areas Satisfaction Subscale (BASS) of the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ). Scores range from 1-5, with higher scores demonstrating higher appearance satisfaction.	Pretest (Day 1), posttest (Day 5), 1-week follow-up (Day 12), 3-month follow-up (Day 95)
Change in functionality satisfaction over time (pretest, posttest, follow-ups)	Functionality satisfaction was assessed using the Physical Condition Subscale (PCS) of the Body Esteem Scale (BES). Scores range from 1-5, with higher scores demonstrating higher functionality satisfaction.	Pretest (Day 1), posttest (Day 5), 1-week follow-up (Day 12), 3-month follow-up (Day 95)
Change in body appreciation over time (pretest, posttest, follow-ups)	Body appreciation was assessed using the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2). Scores range from 1-5, with higher scores demonstrating higher body appreciation.	Pretest (Day 1), posttest (Day 5), 1-week follow-up (Day 12), 3-month follow-up (Day 95)
Change in body responsiveness over time (pretest, posttest, follow-ups)	Body responsiveness was assessed using the Body Responsiveness Questionnaire (BRQ). Scores range from 1-7, with higher scores demonstrating higher body responsiveness.	Pretest (Day 1), posttest (Day 5), 1-week follow-up (Day 12), 3-month follow-up (Day 95)
Change in self-objectification over time (pretest, posttest, follow-ups)	Self-objectification was assessed using the Self-Objectification Questionnaire (SOQ). Scores range from -25 to 25, with lower scores demonstrating higher levels of self-objectification.	Pretest (Day 1), posttest (Day 5), 1-week follow-up (Day 12), 3-month follow-up (Day 95)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in self-esteem over time (pretest, posttest, follow-ups)	Self-esteem was assessed using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE). Scores range from 10-40, with higher scores reflecting higher levels of self-esteem.	Pretest (Day 1), posttest (Day 5), 1-week follow-up (Day 12), 3-month follow-up (Day 95)
Changes in self-kindness over time (pretest, posttest, follow-ups)	Self-kindness was assessed using the Self-Kindness Subscale (SKS) of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS). Scores range from 1-7, with higher scores reflecting higher levels of self-kindness.	Pretest (Day 1), posttest (Day 5), 1-week follow-up (Day 12), 3-month follow-up (Day 95)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Maastricht University
• Collaborators: Nederlandse Obesitas Kliniek; Dutch Research Council
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jessica Alleva, Maastricht University; Principal Investigator: Carolien Martijn, Maastricht University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Alleva JM, Martijn C, Van Breukelen GJ, Jansen A, Karos K. Expand Your Horizon: A programme that improves body image and reduces self-objectification by training women to focus on body functionality. Body Image. 2015 Sep;15:81-9. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.07.001. Epub 2015 Aug 14.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 1, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): February 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 30, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 6, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): May 12, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 12, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 6, 2021
• Last Verified: May 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: ERCPN-167_03_05_2016

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Anonymised quantitative data (SPSS file) will be uploaded to DataVerse, and will be accessible upon request from the Principal Investigator. Study protocol and informed consent sheet will be available via ClinicalTrials.gov registration.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: The data will become available as soon as the manuscript is published, with no deadline. The study protocol and informed consent sheet will be available immediately, with no deadline.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Data will be available to other researchers for non-commercial purposes. Qualitative data (derived from participants' responses to the writing exercises) will not be shared, given the sensitive nature of the data, and given that participants did not provide consent for their writing exercises to be shared outside of the research team. Study protocol and informed consent sheet will be available for non-commercial purposes via ClinicalTrials.gov registration.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; ICF

Drug and device information, study documents

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