Virtual Body Project Groups Led by Peers Versus Clinicians (v-BP)

Effectiveness of the Body Project to Prevent Eating Disorders in Young Females at Risk: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Eating disorders (EDs) are a group of illnesses associated with significant psychological and physiological consequences. Overall, only 20% of individuals with EDs receive treatment and treatment is effective for only about 25-35% for those who receive care. The development and implementation of effective prevention approaches for those at risk is therefore pivotal. The Body Project is the most effective ED prevention program for at-risk females according to meta-analyses, but reach has been limited since delivery has traditionally been in-person. Further research is warranted to examine cost-effective and easily accessible approaches to increase scalability and potential for broad implementation. With this application, the investigators therefore propose to examine the effectiveness of the Body Project in young females, a high-risk group, with the following main novel aspects: i) virtually-delivered Body Project groups to maximize reach; ii) peer-led versus clinician-led virtually-delivered Body Project groups; iii) the inclusion of objective measures to assess engagement of intervention targets (i.e., mediator).

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Body Image; Eating Disorders
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Body Project; Behavioral: Psychoeducational control

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 441
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Norway
  • Oslo, Norway
    • Oslo University Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 16-25
• Female identifying
• Self-reported body image concerns

Exclusion Criteria:

• Ongoing eating disorder diagnosis requiring treatment or hospitalization

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Clinician-led Body Project; Participants randomized to this condition will take part in virtual Body Project groups led by clinicians.	Behavioral: Body Project; The Body Project prevention program is a body acceptance program to promote a healthy body image and prevent eating disorder onset.
Experimental: Peer-led Body Project; Participants randomized to this condition will take part in virtual Body Project groups led by peers.	Behavioral: Body Project; The Body Project prevention program is a body acceptance program to promote a healthy body image and prevent eating disorder onset.
Active Comparator: Educational control; Participants randomized to the educational control group will receive educational videos on body image and eating disorders	Behavioral: Psychoeducational control; Participants randomized to the educational control condition will receive videos addressing body image and eating disorders

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change over time in eating disorder symptoms	Assessed with the 28-item self-report Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q). Responses range from 0-6, whith higher scores indicating more severe eating disorder psychopathology	Baseline/pretest, posttest right after intervention (an average of 8 weeks), and at follow-up after 6-months, 1-year, and 2-years
Rate of eating disorder onset	Assessed with the eating disorder diagnostic interview Eating Disorder Assessment-5 (EDA-5). This is a semi-structured clinician-led diagnostic interview, based on the diagnostic criteria in the diagnostic manual DSM-5, and is efficient to determine eating disorder diagnostic status. This outcome will be used to determine proportion of participants with an eating disorder diagnosis.	Baseline/pretest, 1-year, and at 2-years
Change over time in Body dissatisfaction	Assessed with the 10-item Body Dissatisfaction Scale (BDI; Berscheid et al., 2973) which assesses dissatisfaction with various body parts. Each item is scored on a scale of 1 = extremely dissatisfied to 5 = extremely satisfied. Lower scores indicate greater body dissatisfaction	Baseline/pretest, posttest right after intervention (an average of 8 weeks), and at follow-up after 6-months, 1-year, and 2-years
Change over time in thin-ideal internalization	Assessed with the 8-item Ideal-Body Stereotype Scale-Revised (Stice et al., 2017) which measures pursuit of the thin ideal. Each item is scored on a scale of 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Higher scores indicate greater belief in the thin-deal.	Baseline/pretest, posttest right after intervention (an average of 8 weeks), and at follow-up after 6-months, 1-year, and 2-years
Negative affect	20 negative items from the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule - Revised (PANAS-X) (Watson & Clark, 1992) to measure negative affect. Higher scores indicate higher levels of negative affect. Responses range from 1-5	Baseline/pretest, posttest right after intervention (an average of 8 weeks), and at follow-up after 6-months, 1-year, and 2-years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change over time in appearance ideals and perceived pressures	Assessed with the Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ-4R) (Schaefer et al., 2017). A total of 31 items are included, and responses range from 1-5. Higher scores indicate higher levels of internalization/pressures	Baseline/pretest, posttest right after intervention (an average of 8 weeks), and at follow-up after 6-months, 1-year, and 2-years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Oslo University Hospital
• Collaborators: Karolinska Institutet; Stanford University; Oslo New University College, Norway
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Line Wisting, PhD, Oslo University Hospital

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Wisting L, Stice E, Ghaderi A, Dahlgren CL. Effectiveness of virtually delivered Body Project groups to prevent eating disorders in young women at risk: a protocol for a randomized controlled trial. J Eat Disord. 2023 Nov 24;11(1):209. doi: 10.1186/s40337-023-00932-7.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 15, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2029

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 31, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 8, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): August 15, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 12, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 11, 2025
• Last Verified: December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Prevention; Body acceptance
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Signs and Symptoms, Digestive; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Signs and Symptoms; Feeding and Eating Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: 609734

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