Effectiveness of a Self-guided Mobile Phone Application in Improving the Way we See Ourselves and Our Bodies

NCT04977973 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: NUS-IRB-2021-85
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 310
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Body image concerns are pervasive and can impact multiple aspects of a person's life. Individuals with negative body image tend to have negative thoughts and feelings about their bodies, often resulting in unhealthy behaviours. Negative body image is also associated with mental and physical health conditions. Thus, prevention efforts are crucial to alleviating body image concerns in young adults as they are considered high-risk populations. This study is a randomised controlled trial that aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a self-guided body image program on a mobile-based application for young adults. Hypothesis 1a: The intervention group will improve significantly on measures of body image at post-intervention and follow-up, as compared to the control group. Hypothesis 1b: The intervention group will reduce significantly on measures of appearance-ideal internalization, media and peer pressures at post-intervention and follow-up, as compared to the control group. Hypothesis 2: The intervention group will improve significantly on the measure of self-compassion at post intervention and follow-up, as compared to the control group.

Conditions

Body Image

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Change of baseline body image ideals

  Body Image Ideals Questionnaire (BIQ) is a 22-item scale that assesses body image satisfaction-dissatisfaction by measuring the degree of congruence or discrepancy of one's perceived and idealized physical attributes. On a scale from 0 (Exactly as I am) to 3 (Very unlike me), participants rate the degree they resemble their physical ideal on 11 physical attributes. Next, participants rate the importance that they attain their ideal on each physical attribute. The cross-products of the discrepancy and importance ratings for each physical attribute will be obtained and a composite BIQ score will be computed. Higher scores indicate greater disparity between one's perceived and ideal physical attributes, suggesting higher levels of body dissatisfaction. BIQ has good internal consistency, with Cronbach's α of 0.81 for males and 0.76 for females.

  Baseline, 9 days (completion of intervention), 4 weeks (follow-up)

• Change of body appreciation

  Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a 10-item scale that assesses individuals' positive attitudes toward their bodies. Items are scored on a scale from 1 (Never) to 5 (Always). Scores on all items are averaged with higher scores indicating greater body appreciation. BAS-2 has excellent internal consistency, with Cronbach's α of 0.96 for males and 0.97 for females

  Baseline, 9 days (completion of intervention), 4 weeks (follow-up)

• Change of sociocultural attitudes towards appearance

  Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire-4 Revised (SATAQ-4R) measures internalization ideals and appearance related sociocultural pressures. The seven subscales consist of 31 items for females and 28 items for males on a scale from 1 (Definitely disagree) to 5 (Definitely agree). Higher scores on each subscale indicate higher levels of internalisation and sociocultural pressures. The internal consistency of the subscales are good, with Cronbach's α of 0.82 or higher in a sample of university females and Cronbach's α of 0.75 or higher in a sample of university males.

  Baseline, 9 days (completion of intervention), 4 weeks (follow-up)

• Change of self-compassion

  Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF) is a 12-item scale that measures self-compassion on six subscales. Each item is scored from 1 (Almost never) to 5 (Almost always). A total self-compassion score is a grand mean of all six subscale means, with higher scores indicating higher levels of self-compassion. The internal consistency of the scale is excellent, with Cronbach's α of 0.86.

  Baseline, 9 days (completion of intervention), 4 weeks (follow-up)

Other Outcomes (1)

• Engagement with the mobile application

  9 days (completion of programme)

Study Arms (2)

Intervention group: Body Image

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will complete a 9-day self-guided programme on body image delivered via a mobile phone application with daily exercises informed by cognitive-behavioural and self-compassion principles.

Behavioral: Self-guided programme on body image

Control group

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Participants will complete a 9-day self-guided programme on cooperation delivered via a mobile phone application with daily exercises that differ to the intervention group in terms of content but are comparable in terms of duration.

Behavioral: Self-guided programme on cooperation

Interventions

Self-guided programme on body image BEHAVIORAL

Participants will download the application from the App store or Google Play store for free. In both programs, participants engage in content learning and short activities daily on the phone application. The anticipated time participants will spend on each program is comparable, of about less than five minutes per day. Participants complete the same set of questionnaires immediately after completing the program (post-intervention measure), and again at 4 weeks after completing the program (follow-up measure). At the end of the six weeks data collection period, all participants will be debriefed about the purpose of the study. Participants in the active wait-list control condition will be given access to the body image program.

Intervention group: Body Image

Self-guided programme on cooperation BEHAVIORAL

Participants will download the application from the App store or Google Play store for free. In both programs, participants engage in content learning and short activities daily on the phone application. The anticipated time participants will spend on each program is comparable, of about less than five minutes per day. Participants complete the same set of questionnaires immediately after completing the program (post-intervention measure), and again at 4 weeks after completing the program (follow-up measure). At the end of the six weeks data collection period, all participants will be debriefed about the purpose of the study. Participants in the active wait-list control condition will be given access to the body image program.

Control group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 30 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Age 18-30
• good command of the English language

You may not qualify if:

• \- none

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National University of Singapore: lead
• Intellect Pte. Ltd.: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

National University of Singapore

Singapore, Singapore

Location

Related Publications (12)

• Bakker D, Rickard N. Engagement in mobile phone app for self-monitoring of emotional wellbeing predicts changes in mental health: MoodPrism. J Affect Disord. 2018 Feb;227:432-442. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2017.11.016. Epub 2017 Nov 9.

  PMID: 29154165 BACKGROUND

• Bakker D, Kazantzis N, Rickwood D, Rickard N. A randomized controlled trial of three smartphone apps for enhancing public mental health. Behav Res Ther. 2018 Oct;109:75-83. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2018.08.003. Epub 2018 Aug 11.

  PMID: 30125790 BACKGROUND

• Cash TF, Szymanski ML. The development and validation of the Body-Image Ideals Questionnaire. J Pers Assess. 1995 Jun;64(3):466-77. doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa6403_6.

  PMID: 16367722 BACKGROUND

• Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang AG, Buchner A. G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods. 2007 May;39(2):175-91. doi: 10.3758/bf03193146.

  PMID: 17695343 BACKGROUND

• Franko DL, Cousineau TM, Rodgers RF, Roehrig JP. BodiMojo: effective Internet-based promotion of positive body image in adolescent girls. Body Image. 2013 Sep;10(4):481-8. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2013.04.008. Epub 2013 Jun 13.

  PMID: 23768797 BACKGROUND

• Raes F, Pommier E, Neff KD, Van Gucht D. Construction and factorial validation of a short form of the Self-Compassion Scale. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2011 May-Jun;18(3):250-5. doi: 10.1002/cpp.702. Epub 2010 Jun 8.

  PMID: 21584907 BACKGROUND

• Rodgers RF, Donovan E, Cousineau T, Yates K, McGowan K, Cook E, Lowy AS, Franko DL. BodiMojo: Efficacy of a Mobile-Based Intervention in Improving Body Image and Self-Compassion among Adolescents. J Youth Adolesc. 2018 Jul;47(7):1363-1372. doi: 10.1007/s10964-017-0804-3. Epub 2018 Jan 18.

  PMID: 29349593 BACKGROUND

• Schaefer LM, Harriger JA, Heinberg LJ, Soderberg T, Kevin Thompson J. Development and validation of the sociocultural attitudes towards appearance questionnaire-4-revised (SATAQ-4R). Int J Eat Disord. 2017 Feb;50(2):104-117. doi: 10.1002/eat.22590. Epub 2016 Aug 19.

  PMID: 27539814 BACKGROUND

• Stice E, Becker CB, Yokum S. Eating disorder prevention: current evidence-base and future directions. Int J Eat Disord. 2013 Jul;46(5):478-85. doi: 10.1002/eat.22105.

  PMID: 23658095 BACKGROUND

• Tukey, J. W., & McLaughlin, D. H. (1963). Less vulnerable confidence and significance procedures for location based on a single sample: Trimming/Winsorization 1. Sankhya. Series A, 25(3), 331-352.

  BACKGROUND

• Tylka TL, Wood-Barcalow NL. The Body Appreciation Scale-2: item refinement and psychometric evaluation. Body Image. 2015 Jan;12:53-67. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.09.006. Epub 2014 Oct 21.

  PMID: 25462882 BACKGROUND

• Ong WY, Sundermann O. Efficacy of the Mental Health App "Intellect" to Improve Body Image and Self-compassion in Young Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial With a 4-Week Follow-up. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2022 Nov 21;10(11):e41800. doi: 10.2196/41800.

  PMID: 36409542 DERIVED

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: FACTORIAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Deputy Director Master in Clinical Psychology Program

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: July 7, 2021
• First Posted: July 27, 2021
• Study Start: August 25, 2021
• Primary Completion: January 10, 2022
• Study Completion: January 10, 2022
• Last Updated: April 6, 2022

Record last verified: 2022-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

SG (1)