Mindfulness App for Reducing Food Cravings

October 17, 2023 updated by: Barbel Knauper, McGill University

Mobile Mindfulness Intervention to Reduce Non-Homeostatic Food Cravings in Emotional Eaters: Research Pilot

More than half of Canadian are overweight or obese and over fifty percent of individuals who are obese are emotional eaters. Emotional eating is defined as the tendency to eat in response to negative emotions and can be understood as reward-based eating behavior that is reinforced by modern obesogenic environments. Over time, food-related cues can interfere with reward-based learning processes such that an individual develops a conditioned response to eat for reasons that are not associated with physiological hunger. Mindfulness has the potential to act on the reward-base habit loop of emotional eating. One potential target is cravings or the urges to eat. This can be targeted using the mindfulness exercise called "RAIN" which calls for individuals to (1) Recognize and name their craving, to (2) Acknowledge its presence and to give it space to "be"; (3) then Investigate and bring an attitude of curiosity to their experience - Where did these feelings comes from? Have I felt this way before? then (4) Not-identify with your experience- that is, remind yourself that although your craving or urge to eat is very powerful, it only makes up a small part of who you are. The aim of the study is to therefore test a pilot intervention that implements a targeted mindfulness-based exercise (RAIN), using a mobile app, to attenuate the relationship between feeling a negative internal state (affect) and eating.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

49

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

  • Canada
    • Please Select...
      • Montreal, Please Select..., Canada, H3A 1G1
        • McGill University
    • Quebec
      • Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 1G1
        • McGill University

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

14 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Adults (age > 18 years) who meet criteria for emotional eating
  2. Demonstrate a lack of control over eating
  3. High levels of preoccupation with food

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Having been pregnant in the past six months or planning on becoming pregnant in the next year
  2. currently undergoing treatment for cancer
  3. using medication that affects body weight or appetite
  4. being diagnosed with Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, currently active Major Depression, or other psychiatric illnesses that may affect appetite.
  5. Participants must also be proficient in English
  6. Own a smartphone

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Mindfulness
Behavioral: Mindfulness
Participants will be taught a mindfulness exercise and will be instructed to use this exercise (following a mobile app) whenever they experience a food craving to eat for non-homeostatic reasons.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in food-related cravings
Time Frame: Baseline, week 6
Food Craving Questionnaire Measures the frequency and intensity of food cravings in general. The 15-item scale assesses six dimensions of craving experiences: lack of control overeating, thoughts or preoccupation with food, intentions and plans to consume food, emotions before and during food cravings, as cues that may trigger food cravings. Items are rated on a scale of 1 (never) to 6 (always). Sample items include: "I feel like I have food on my mind all the time", "I crave foods when I feel bored, angry or sad" and "If I am craving something, thoughts of eating consume me". This measure has shown high internal consistency (Cronbach alphas between .80 and .91)
Baseline, week 6
Change in emotional eating
Time Frame: Baseline, week 6
Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire The DEBQ is a 33-item self-report measure that assesses three dimensions of eating behaviours: emotion eating, restrained eating, and external eating. Individual are asked to indicate the extent to which they agree with each statement from 1 (seldom) to 5 (very often). Sample items include "Do you have a desire to eat when you are anxious, worried or tense?" and "If you see other eating, do you also have a desire to eat?". This measure has shown high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .95)
Baseline, week 6

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in feelings of control around eating
Time Frame: Baseline, week 6

Brief Loss of Control Over-Eating Scale:

The Brief Loss of Control Over-Eating Scale is a 7-item measure that assesses one's self-reported tendency to lose control over their eating behaviors. Items on the scale are rated from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Sample items include: "I felt like my cravings to eat overpowered me" and "I found myself eating despite negative consequences". The LOCES-B has shown high internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = .92)
Baseline, week 6
Change in overidentification with food cravings
Time Frame: Baseline, week 6
Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire- Food Cravings The Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire - Food Cravings is a (7-item) scale that assesses cognitive fusion with undesirable thoughts regards food craving and urges to eat. Sample items include: "It's very hard for me to let go of my food urges or cravings even when I know that letting go would be very helpful" and "I struggle to control my food urges or cravings." This measure has shown high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .92).
Baseline, week 6
Change in reactivity towards eating related experiences
Time Frame: Baseline, week 6

UPPS-P Measure, Negative Urgency Scale:

The UPPS-P Negative Urgency Scale is a 12-item measure that assess one's tendency to act rashly in response to negative mood states. Items on the scale are rated from 1 (I agree strongly) to 4 (I disagree strongly). Higher scores represent greater levels of impulsivity. Sample items include: "I have trouble controlling my impulses"). The UPPS-P Negative Urgency Scale has shown high internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = .88)
Baseline, week 6
Change in judgment towards eating related experiences
Time Frame: Baseline, week 6
Four Facet Mindful Eating Scale (FFaMES) The Four Facet Mindful Eating Scale is a 29-item self-report measure that assesses four dimensions of mindful eating: non-reactance, non-judgment, external awareness, and internal awareness. Individuals are asked to indicate the extent to which they agree with each statement from 1 (never) to 5 (very often). Sample items include: "I get carried away by my thoughts when I eat" and "I notice how the smell of food makes me want to eat." This measure has shown high internal consistency (non-reactance: Cronbach's alpha = .92, non-judgment: Cronbach's alpha = .91, external awareness: Cronbach's alpha = .82, internal awareness: Cronbach's alpha = .92).
Baseline, week 6
Change in capacity to tolerate distress
Time Frame: Baseline, week 6
Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS) The Distress Tolerance Scale is a 14-item scale that assesses an individual's ability to cope with various emotional states (e.g., happiness, anger, loneliness) that are in anticipating as well as in the present. Each item is rated on a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (all the time). Sample items include: "Felling distressed or upset is unbearable to me", "When I feel distressed or upset, all I can think about is how bad I feel" and "I can't handle feeling distressed or upset". The scale has shown high internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .91).
Baseline, week 6

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

McGill University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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)

June 1, 2022

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 28, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

August 28, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 16, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 24, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

April 26, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 18, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 17, 2023

Last Verified

October 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • McGillU mindfulness app

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

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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