Mindfulness App for Reducing Food Cravings

NCT05347914 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: McGillU mindfulness app
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 49
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

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.

Conditions

Emotional Eating

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Change in food-related cravings

  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

  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 Outcomes (5)

• Change in feelings of control around eating

  Baseline, week 6

• Change in overidentification with food cravings

  Baseline, week 6

• Change in reactivity towards eating related experiences

  Baseline, week 6

• Change in judgment towards eating related experiences

  Baseline, week 6

• Change in capacity to tolerate distress

  Baseline, week 6

Study Arms (1)

Mindfulness

EXPERIMENTAL

Behavioral: Mindfulness

Interventions

Mindfulness BEHAVIORAL

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.

Mindfulness

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

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

You may not qualify if:

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

Sponsors & Collaborators

• McGill University: lead

Study Sites (2)

McGill University

Montreal, Please Select..., H3A 1G1, Canada

Location

McGill University

Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1G1, Canada

Location

Related Publications (26)

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MeSH Terms

Conditions

Emotional Eating

Interventions

Mindfulness

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Feeding Behavior; Behavior

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Behavior Therapy; Psychotherapy; Behavioral Disciplines and Activities

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 16, 2022
• First Posted: April 26, 2022
• Study Start: June 1, 2022
• Primary Completion: August 28, 2023
• Study Completion: August 28, 2023
• Last Updated: October 18, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-10

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

CA (2)