The Exploration of an Active Training Tool to Reduce Weight Bias Among Students Pursuing a Healthcare-related Degree

An open-label parallel RCT will be conducted among 220 students pursuing a health-related degree at Ariel university. The intervention tool will be based on the constructive social learning model and will include a short lecture on obesity, scenarios simulating a meeting between health professionals and patients with obesity that will be presented by professional role-players and include varying degrees of weight bias, stigma and discrimination, and an open discourse with a patient with obesity. The tool's development will be carried out throughout recommended steps including a comprehensive literature review, preparation of a preliminary draft of the plan, evaluation of the planned intervention tool in terms of content validity, and a pilot testing of the tool among n=15 students from the target population.

The control group will receive a short-written document on obesity. This study will utilize an embedded mixed-method approach. At baseline, one- and six- weeks post-intervention both groups will be asked to fill an anonymous online survey which will include demographics, weight and body perception, knowledge about obesity, the Anti-Fat Attitudes questionnaire, the Short-Form of Fat-Phobia scale, and the Weight-Implicit Association-Test. Moreover, in-depth interviews will be conducted among 15 participants from each group.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Obesity Bias
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: An active training tool on weight bias and knowledge about obesity; Behavioral: A short-written document on obesity

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 162
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Israel
  • Ariel, Israel, 40700
    • Ariel University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• undergraduate students pursuing a healthcare-related degree including nutrition science, health systems management, communication disorders, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and nursing at Ariel university
• age ≥18 years
• willingness to participate in the study.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: An active training tool on weight bias and knowledge about obesity; The intervention will take place at the university simulation center and include three components. First, a short-lecture on obesity and weight bias. Second, four scenarios that simulate meetings between health professionals and people with obesity which will be presented by professional role-players in sequence. Each scenario will include a different therapeutic situation and include varying degrees of weight bias, stigma, and discrimination to stimulate students to think and react. Third, an active open discourse with a person with obesity will be held.	Behavioral: An active training tool on weight bias and knowledge about obesity; The intervention will take place at the university simulation center and include three components. First, a short lecture on obesity and weight bias. Second, four scenarios that simulate meetings between health professionals and people with obesity which will be presented by professional role-players in sequence. Each scenario will include a different therapeutic situation and include varying degrees of weight bias, stigma, and discrimination to stimulate students to think and react. Third, an active open discourse with a person with obesity will be held.
Placebo Comparator: A short-written document on obesity; A short-written document on obesity which will be based on current literature.	Behavioral: A short-written document on obesity; A short-written document on obesity which will be based on current literature.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Anti-Fat Attitudes questionnaire ('AFA')	The 'AFA' indicates explicit anti-fat attitudes toward people with obesity and is composed of 13-items rated on a 10-point Likert scale and divided into three subscales ('dislike', 'fear about fat' and 'willpower'), with higher total scores indicating stronger anti-fat attitudes.	Change from baseline at six- weeks post-intervention
The short-form of fat-phobia scale (' F-scale')	The 'F-scale' indicates fat-phobic attitudes toward people with obesity and is composed of 14-pairs of adjectives that are used to describe people with obesity (e.g., 'no willpower' vs. 'has willpower') and ranked on a 1-5 scale according to the point closest to the adjective name that describes their feelings and beliefs. Higher scores indicate stronger fat-phobic attitudes.	Change from baseline at six- weeks post-intervention
Weight Implicit Association Test ('IAT')	IAT tool is an indirect measure of implicit bias toward weight which uses the constructs of "fat people" versus "thin people" and the polarized attitudes of "good" and "bad" to detect implicit weight bias.	Change from baseline at six- weeks post-intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Knowledge about obesity	Knowledge about obesity will be assessed by five questions that were written by the research team according to current literature.	Change from baseline at six- weeks post-intervention

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Demographics	Questions regarding age, gender, occupation, marital status, religious affiliation, department of studies.	At baseline
Body perception	Body Appreciation Scale-2 is a 10-item scale which ranked on a 1-5 scale and assesses acceptance and/or favorable opinions towards a person's body.	At baseline
Weight perception	Questions regarding self-definition of weight status, the importance of weight to self-confidence, and much control a person has over the weight.	At baseline
Weight history	Questions regarding current weight and height, obesity during childhood, obesity during last decade, family members who struggle with obesity, currently in any process of losing weight.	At baseline
Objective weight measurement	Measurement of actual weight in kilograms.	At baseline
Objective height measurement	Measurement of actual height in meters.	At baseline
Semi structured interviews	Fifteen participants from each study group will be randomly chosen for conducting a semi-structured interviews. The interviews will take place six weeks post-intervention and will provide in-depth, detailed information regarding the participants' views of obesity and stigma after conducting the intervention.	At six- weeks post-intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Ariel University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Shiri Sherf-Dagan, PhD, Ariel university and Assuta medical center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 1, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 1, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): August 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 27, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 29, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): August 1, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 22, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 21, 2023
• Last Verified: December 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: AU-HEA-SSD-20220709

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

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