Attention Concentration Difficulty, Obesity, Childhood
Conditions
Keywords
Attention, Food cues, Media multi-tasking
Brief summary
Childhood obesity is a critical public health problem in the United States. One factor known to contribute to childhood obesity is excess consumption. Importantly, excess consumption related to weight gain is not necessarily driven by hunger. For example, environmental food cues stimulate brain reward regions and lead to overeating even after a child has eaten to satiety. This type of cued eating is associated with increased attention to food cues; the amount of time a child spends looking at food cues (e.g., food advertisements) is associated with increased caloric intake. However, individual susceptibility to environmental food cues remains unknown. It is proposed that the prevalent practice of media multi-tasking-simultaneously attending to multiple electronic media sources-increases attention to peripheral food cues in the environment and thereby plays an important role in the development of obesity. It is hypothesized that multi-tasking teaches children to engage in constant task switching that makes them more responsive to peripheral cues, many of which are potentially harmful (such as those that promote overeating). The overarching hypothesis is that media multi-tasking alters the attentional networks of the brain that control attention to environmental cues. High media multi-tasking children are therefore particularly susceptible to food cues, thereby leading to increased cued eating. It is also predicted that attention modification training can provide a protective effect against detrimental attentional processing caused multi-tasking, by increasing the proficiency of the attention networks. These hypotheses will be tested by assessing the pathway between media-multitasking, attention to food cues, and cued eating. It will also be examined whether it is possible to intervene on this pathway by piloting an at-home attention modification training intervention designed to reduce attention to food cues. It is our belief that this research will lead to the development of low-cost, scalable tools that can train attention networks so that children are less influenced by peripheral food cues, a known cause of overeating. For example, having children practice attention modification intervention tasks regularly (which could be accomplished through user-friendly computer games or cell phone/tablet apps) might offset the negative attentional effects of media multi-tasking.
Detailed description
\[3/14/2020\]: Study recruitment temporarily halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Interventions
BEHAVIORALSustained attention
participants will complete a sustained attention task
BEHAVIORALmedia multi-task
participants will complete multiple media tasks at the same time
OTHERVideo
participants will watch a video of media tasks being completed
Sponsors
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
CROSSOVER
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Intervention model description
This is a within-subject design where each participant is randomly assigned to all three arms.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
13 Years to 17 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* N/A.
Exclusion criteria
* Inadequate English proficiency, a vision disorder that is not corrected with corrective lenses, and relevant food allergies.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game | approximately 15 minutes post-intervention | Eye-tracking will be used to measure the amount of time spent looking at static food cues while participants play a media game on the computer. The amount time spent looking at a food cue is a measure how much attention was given to the food cue. The longer the looking time, the greater amount of attention. |
| Amount of Snack Foods Consumed Post-intervention | approximately 30 minutes post-intervention | The amount of kcals consumed of snack foods after participants have completed the intervention. |
| Daily Usual Media Multi-tasking | approximately 10 minutes prior to the intervention | Participants reported on their usual media multitasking using the short form media multitasking index. This index asks about media multitasking with other print and digital media during four primary activities: 1) watching television or movies, 2) playing video games, 3) reading books or magazines (not assigned for school), and 4) doing homework. For each activity, participants reported the frequency with which they multitasked by engaging in the other activities by using a 5-point likert scale (i.e., 0=Never, 1=Rarely, 2=Sometimes, 3=Often, 4=Always). A usual media multitasking score was computed by taking the average of the Likert response. The score ranges from 0 to 4 with a higher score indicative of higher self-reported usual media multitasking. |
Countries
United States
Participant flow
Recruitment details
92 Adolescents were enrolled in this study.
Participants by arm
| Arm | Count |
|---|---|
| Individual Participant Data. This study has a within-subject design where each participant is assigned to all three arms in a randomized fashion. Baseline population data was only collected for adolescents. | 92 |
| Total | 92 |
Withdrawals & dropouts
| Period | Reason | FG000 |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Study | Did not complete all three arms | 1 |
Baseline characteristics
| Characteristic | Individual Participant Data. |
|---|---|
| Age, Customized Age 13 | 24 Participants |
| Age, Customized Age 14 | 23 Participants |
| Age, Customized Age 15 | 26 Participants |
| Age, Customized Age 16 | 15 Participants |
| Age, Customized Age 17 | 4 Participants |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Hispanic or Latino | 3 Participants |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Not Hispanic or Latino | 87 Participants |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Unknown or Not Reported | 2 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) American Indian or Alaska Native | 0 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) Asian | 5 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) Black or African American | 1 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) More than one race | 5 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 0 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) Unknown or Not Reported | 1 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) White | 80 Participants |
| Region of Enrollment United States | 92 participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Female | 50 Participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Male | 42 Participants |
Adverse events
| Event type | EG000 affected / at risk | EG001 affected / at risk | EG002 affected / at risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| deaths Total, all-cause mortality | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 |
| other Total, other adverse events | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 |
| serious Total, serious adverse events | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 |
Outcome results
Primary
Amount of Snack Foods Consumed Post-intervention
The amount of kcals consumed of snack foods after participants have completed the intervention.
Time frame: approximately 30 minutes post-intervention
Population: A single participant dropped out after completing 2 visits, failing to complete their control condition visit.
| Arm | Measure | Value (MEAN) | Dispersion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video (Control) | Amount of Snack Foods Consumed Post-intervention | 435.18 kcals | Standard Deviation 208.76 |
| Media Multi-task | Amount of Snack Foods Consumed Post-intervention | 423.99 kcals | Standard Deviation 183.32 |
| Sustained Attention Task | Amount of Snack Foods Consumed Post-intervention | 433.54 kcals | Standard Deviation 185.22 |
Primary
Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game
Eye-tracking will be used to measure the amount of time spent looking at static food cues while participants play a media game on the computer. The amount time spent looking at a food cue is a measure how much attention was given to the food cue. The longer the looking time, the greater amount of attention.
Time frame: approximately 15 minutes post-intervention
Population: Cumulative fixation duration. Five children were excluded from the computation of these eye tracking metric because of unsuccessful eye tracking calibration.
| Arm | Measure | Group | Value (MEAN) | Dispersion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video (Control) | Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game | Food | 8486.79 milliseconds | Standard Deviation 13977.62 |
| Video (Control) | Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game | Animals (control) | 9304.26 milliseconds | Standard Deviation 15332.66 |
| Video (Control) | Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game | Total | 17791.05 milliseconds | Standard Deviation 23852.25 |
| Media Multi-task | Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game | Food | 11367.48 milliseconds | Standard Deviation 13858.05 |
| Media Multi-task | Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game | Animals (control) | 10196.45 milliseconds | Standard Deviation 12806.6 |
| Media Multi-task | Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game | Total | 21563.93 milliseconds | Standard Deviation 21466.33 |
| Sustained Attention Task | Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game | Animals (control) | 8654.48 milliseconds | Standard Deviation 14717.66 |
| Sustained Attention Task | Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game | Total | 17662.07 milliseconds | Standard Deviation 22825.76 |
| Sustained Attention Task | Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game | Food | 8802.22 milliseconds | Standard Deviation 13605.9 |
Primary
Daily Usual Media Multi-tasking
Participants reported on their usual media multitasking using the short form media multitasking index. This index asks about media multitasking with other print and digital media during four primary activities: 1) watching television or movies, 2) playing video games, 3) reading books or magazines (not assigned for school), and 4) doing homework. For each activity, participants reported the frequency with which they multitasked by engaging in the other activities by using a 5-point likert scale (i.e., 0=Never, 1=Rarely, 2=Sometimes, 3=Often, 4=Always). A usual media multitasking score was computed by taking the average of the Likert response. The score ranges from 0 to 4 with a higher score indicative of higher self-reported usual media multitasking.
Time frame: approximately 10 minutes prior to the intervention
| Arm | Measure | Value (MEAN) | Dispersion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video (Control) | Daily Usual Media Multi-tasking | 2.35 units on a scale | Standard Deviation 0.87 |