The effectiveness of educational interventions for medical students in reducing negative attitudes and stigmatisation toward patients with anorexia nervosa

Status

Not yet recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ANZCTR

Registry ID

ACTRN12613000016730

Enrollment

Registered

2013-01-07

Start date

2013-01-25

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2020-01-13

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

Brief summary

It is frequently reported that clinicians across a range of professional disciplines experience strong negative reactions toward patients with eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the effectiveness of two different educational interventions in reducing negative attitudes and blame-based stigma (in fourth year medicine students) toward patients with AN. The current study will compare the effectiveness of a traditional intervention (emphasising the contribution of multiple factors in the development of anorexia nervosa), a more biologically-based intervention (emphasising the biological, neurobiological and genetic factors in the development and maintenance of anorexia nervosa), and a wait-list control group (no intervention/education). Attitudes and stigma will be measured pre-intervention, immediately following the intervention, and eight weeks later.

Interventions

Researchers will pilot two differing educational interventions on fourth year medicine students. One intervention will provide traditional educational information on anorexia nervosa (i.e., emphasising the influence of multiple factors in the development of anorexia nervosa). The second intervention will have a stronger biological and genetic focus, providing more emphasis on the biological and genetic contributions and maintaining factors to anorexia nervosa. Both interventions will go for approximately 1-1.5 hours (in a lecture style class) once over an eight week rotation (i.e., one intervention will be piloted in the first eight week rotation, the second intervention will be piloted in the next eight week rotation, and the control group the last eight week rotation).

Study design

Allocation

Randomised controlled trial

Intervention model

Parallel

Primary purpose

Educational / counselling / training

Masking

Blinded (masking used) (Subject)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

18 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

Medicine student (fourth year) No self-reported history of anorexia nervosa, as indicated by the Holmes et al. (1999) Level of Contact Report.

Exclusion criteria

Individuals who indicate they have previously suffered from anorexia nervosa on the Level of Contact Report, will be deleted from the data set as educational interventions are unlikely to compete with or challenge the individual's own reasons/self-perception of their illness. These individuals will be allowed to attend the intervention to avoid identification and stigmatisation, however their responses will be removed from the data set.

Outcome results