Exploring the Effects of Social Media Use and Environmental Factors

External Eating: An Investigation of Social Media and Environmental Factors Influencing Eating Behaviours

Status

UNKNOWN

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT03247621

Enrollment

180

Registered

2017-08-11

Start date

2015-07-31

Completion date

2018-07-31

Last updated

2017-08-11

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

Conditions

Whatsapp, Article, No Phone

Keywords

external eating, technology

Brief summary

In this protocol, the investigators propose a randomised controlled trail to explore the effects of environmental factors and the use of technology on eating behaviours. The investigators have planned two studies to investigate these effects, one on high school students from Raffles Institution, and the other on the university population in the National University of Singapore.

Detailed description

Participants will be told a cover story that the study explores technological distraction on taste, and asked to complete a taste-evaluation taste of common snacks. One group (intervention group) will be asked to use their personal smartphones to engage in their pre-existing Whatsapp chats while doing the taste test. For the two control conditions, one group will be tasked with reading a neutral article on their personal smartphones while they complete the taste test, while the other group will be asked to complete the taste test without any use of smartphones.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALWhatsapp

BEHAVIORALArticle

BEHAVIORALNo Phone

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

13 Years to 26 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Normal weight: Body mass index of 18 to 25 * Have at least occasional breakfast meals (≥ 3 times a week of self-reported consumption of a breakfast meal)

Exclusion criteria

* Symptoms / history of any medical or psychiatric conditions * Allergies to food products * History of eating disorders * Excessive exercise (≥ 5 times a week of self-reported exercise) * Currently on a special diet or deliberating restricting caloric intake * Currently on a weight loss program * Smoking or substance abuse

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Amount of food consumed	20 minutes	Number of grams of cereal eaten

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Hunger ratings	10 minutes	Self-reported hunger ratings before and after the taste test
Taste ratings	20 minutes	Self-report on how much they enjoyed the two food products during the taste test

Countries

Singapore

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026