The researchers are developing a new exercise-focused group and are interested in studying whether this group helps people increase their exercise without increasing risk for disordered eating behaviors.
Individuals seeking weight loss are often encouraged to increase their exercise engagement as a health-promoting behavior. However, exercise engagement is often connected directly to caloric intake within weight loss interventions, so it is likely that individuals seeking weight loss are engaging in some level of compensatory exercise even in the absence of other disordered eating symptoms. Compensatory exercise is defined as exercising to "offset" or "make up for" calories consumed with the intent of controlling one's body weight or shape. The researchers are developing a new group to promote healthy exercise and are interested in studying whether this group helps people increase their exercise without increasing risk for compensatory exercise or other disordered eating behaviors.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
12
The intervention aims to increase exercise using cognitive and behavioral skills integrated across several treatment manuals including the Physical Activity Cognitively Enhanced (PACE) intervention for healthy exercise promotion in eating disorders, acceptance-based and standard behavioral weight loss manuals, and affect-guided exercise prescriptions.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinics
Lebanon, New Hampshire, United States
Objective physical activity
Objective physical activity will be measures as the total number of minutes per week of physical activity measured via Fitbit device worn during waking hours. The Fitbit data will yield a total count of the number of minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for each week during the intervention period, with higher counts indicating greater levels of activity.
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 12 weeks
Self-reported physical activity
Participants will also complete self-report measures of physical activity, including the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and IPAQ-short form at group sessions and study assessments. The IPAQ asks patients to report on their total physical activity engagement over the past 7 days by light, moderate, and vigorous activity categories. The IPAQ yields a total count of the number of minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity over the past week, with higher minutes indicating more activity.
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 12 weeks
Eating disorder symptoms
ED symptoms will be assessed via the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q 6.0), which asks about ED symptoms over the past month (28 days). Compensatory exercise engagement will be assessed via an item asking, "Over the past 28 days, how many times have you exercised to "make up for" a binge-eating episode, and compulsive exercise will be assessed using the item "...how many times have you felt driven/compelled to exercise?" EDE-Q items are averages to calculate a total score ranging from 0-6, with higher scores indicating higher levels of eating pathology.
Time frame: Baseline and post-intervention (week 12)
Weight bias internalization
Internalized weight stigma will be measured using the Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS). The WBIS comprises 11 items measuring self-directed weight bias and has shown excellent convergent and divergent validity within the population of interest. The WBIS items are averaged to yield a total score ranging from 1-7, with higher scores reflecting higher internalized weight bias.
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Time frame: baseline and post-intervention (week 12)
intervention acceptability
Participants will complete qualitative interviews at post-treatment to provide feedback on group format, acceptability, utility, etc. Qualitative analysis of these interview transcripts will elucidate themes related to group acceptability.
Time frame: post-intervention (week 12)
intervention feasibility
Feasibility will be measured via group attendance rates across the 12 sessions.
Time frame: post-intervention (week 12)