None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The Prevention Across the Spectrum (PAS) project builds on previous school-based eating disorder prevention research by Dr Simon Wilksch and Prof Tracey Wade as well as a considerable body of prevention work by Prof Susan Paxton (LaTrobe University) and work in the area of obesity by Dr Sue Byrne (University of Western Australia). In brief, the PAS project will compare the effect of three prevention programs on risk factors for both eating disorders and obesity, in a controlled trial with Grade 7 male and female students across South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia. Two of the interventions, Media Smart (MS: Wilksch & Wade, 2009) and Happy Being Me (HBM: Richardson & Paxton, in press), have been found to be promising eating disorder risk reduction programs. However, their effect on risk factors for obesity has not yet been evaluated and this is the key aim of the current project - to see if it is possible for individual programs to reduce the risk of both eating disorders and obesity developing. Happy Being Me is a 3-lesson program that was adapted into an 8-lesson program titled Helping, Encouraging, Listening and Protecting Peers (HELPP) for the current study (so that all 3 programs were of the same length to rule out dose-response as a reason for differences across the groups). These two interventions will be compared to a control group and a program developed for the purpose of this study, Life Smart (LS). While MS and HBM were originally developed to directly target eating disorder risk factors, LS is designed to focus more on obesity risk factors and is informed by aspects of previous successful school-based obesity prevention programs (e.g., Gortmaker et al., 1999).
Interventions
Three school-based programs for students in Grades 7 and 8, where classes were randomly assigned to receive either 1 of the 3 programs or attend their usual classes (control condition). Each program was 8 X 45-minute lessons in duration and was delivered at the rate of 2 lessons per week (i.e., 4-weeks total). Programs were presented by postgraduate clinical psychology students who attended a 6 hour training workshop delivered by the Chief Investigator. Presenters received training in all thre
Three school-based programs for students in Grades 7 and 8, where classes were randomly assigned to receive either 1 of the 3 programs or attend their usual classes (control condition). Each program was 8 X 45-minute lessons in duration and was delivered at the rate of 2 lessons per week (i.e., 4-weeks total). Programs were presented by postgraduate clinical psychology students who attended a 6 hour training workshop delivered by the Chief Investigator. Presenters received training in all three programs and were required to deliver each program in order to reduce the likelihood of presenter effects contaminating program outcomes. Each program involved interactive classroom learning activities (e.g., role plays, small group presentations) and involved an accompanying student workbook. The three programs were: 1) Media Smart; 2) Life Smart; and, 3) the Helping, Encouraging, Listening and Protecting Peers Initiative (HELPP). Media Smart targeted media internalisation, a prospectively identified eating disorder risk factor; Life Smart targeted a range of contributors to health including nutrition, physical activity, emotional and social well being. HELPP targeted appearance-based conversations, another identified risk factor for disordered eating.
Sponsors
Dr Simon Wilksch
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
11 Years to 14 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
No inclusion criteria other than: being a student in Grades 7 or 8 at participating schools and parental consent
Exclusion criteria
Student not wishing to participate or parental consent not received
Outcome results
None listed