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Efficacy of a Mindful-eating Program to Reduce Emotional Eating

Efficacy of a Mindful Eating Program to Reduce Emotional Eating in Patients Suffering From Overweight or Obesity in Primary Care Settings: a Cluster Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Protocol

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT03927534
Enrollment
76
Registered
2019-04-25
Start date
2019-05-01
Completion date
2020-08-30
Last updated
2021-02-23

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

Conditions

Overweight and Obesity

Keywords

Obesity, Overweight, Mindful Eating, Primary Care, Randomized controlled trial (RCT)

Brief summary

Mindfulness-Based Interventions have been applied in different fields to improve physical and psychological health. However, little is known about its applicability and effectiveness in Spanish adults with overweight and obesity. The aim of the present study protocol is to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of an adapted MBI programme to reduce emotional eating in adults with overweight and obesity in primary care (PC) settings.

Detailed description

This study is a multi-centre, two-armed randomized controlled trial (RCT), with pre-treatment, post-treatment and 1-year follow-up measures, and a 1:1 allocation rate between groups. Patients from four mental health units in Zaragoza (Spain) will be randomly assigned to two different parallel conditions, with one psychological intervention group ('ME + TAU') and usual treatment ('TAU alone') managed by their general practitioner (GP), to test the superiority of 'ME + TAU' provision compared with 'TAU alone' provision. For ethical reasons, those patients allocated to 'TAU alone' will be offered the ME programme after finishing the trial at 1-year follow-up.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALMindful Eating

The ME group will be composed by 7 weekly group sessions with a minimum duration of two hours, mixing theoretical contents with practices. Sessions will always be the same day of the week, except for bank holidays or eventualities, and will be conducted by a psychologist specially trained and certified in ME with experience in leading mindfulness groups. Group sizes will range between 10 and 12 participants. At the end of each session, participants will receive theoretical contents and homework activities to be practiced along the week.

Sponsors

Dharamsala Institute of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy of Zaragoza
CollaboratorUNKNOWN
Hospital Miguel Servet
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
45 Years to 75 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Age between 45-75 years * Have overweight or obesity condition based in BMI (Body Mass Index). Individuals with BMI of 25 or more. * Have two of these three risk: sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and binge episodes. * Ability to understand oral and written Spanish. * Willingness to participate in the study and signing informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

* Any diagnosis of a disease that may affect the central nervous system (brain condition, traumatic brain injury, dementia, etc). * Other psychiatric diagnoses or acute psychiatric illness (substance dependence or abuse, history of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, etc.), except for anxiety disorder or personality disorders. * Presence of delusional ideas or hallucinations whether consistent or not with mood. * Suicide risk.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
The Dutch Eating Behavior QuestionnaireBaseline in experimental and control groups.It was designed to measure eating styles that may attenuate or contribute to the development of overweight. It comprises three scales that measure emotional, external and restrained eating. The Spanish version of the DEBQ has 33 items, 13 of them referred to the emotional eating scale (e.g., Desire to eat when irritated), and 10 items referring to the external (e.g., Eating when you feel lonely) and restrictive (e.g., Difficult to resist delicious food) scales, respectively. The items can be rated on a five-point likert scale with 1 indicating never and 5 indicating very often.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Five Facet Mindfulness QuestionnaireBaseline in experimental and control groupsThe FFMQ-short form is a 24-item questionnaire that measures five aspects of mindfulness and there is a Spanish version based on it with appropriate psychometrics. The five facets the FFMQ measures are: observing (α = 81), describing (α = .87), acting with awareness (5 items, α = .83), non-judging to (5 items, α = .83) and non-reacting of (5 items, α = .75) inner experience. The participants indicate on a 5-point Likert scale the degree in which each item is generally true for them, ranging from 1 (never or very rarely true) to 5 (very often or always true).
Self-Compassion ScaleBaseline in experimental and control groupsIt is the most used self-report instrument to measure self-compassion and it is divided into six subscales: Self-Kindness; Self-Judgment; Common Humanity; Isolation; Mindfulness; and Over-Identification. The items can be rated on a five-point Likert-type scale with 1 indicating almost never and 5 indicating almost always. After reversing the negatively formulated items, a total score can be calculated, which may range from 24 to 120, with higher scores indicating greater self-compassion
Mindful Eating ScaleBaseline in experimental and control groupsThe MES scale has 28 items, including six factors: acceptance (α = .89), awareness (α = .82), non-reactivity (α = .77), act with awareness (α = .81), routine (α = .75) and unstructured eating (α = .60). Items can be rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale, with 1 indicating never and 4 indicating very often.
Bulimic Investigatory TestBaseline in experimental and control groupsThe BITE is very used to measure the presence and severity of bulimic symptoms in nonclinical samples. Normative values for BITE total and sub-scale scores in clinical and non-clinical samples are reported. The scale includes in the Symptoms subscale (30 yes-no items; range =0-30) and Severity subscale (6 dimensional items addressing specific bulimic behaviors; range=0-39). In addition to these standars scores, another measure was derived from the BITE-the reported frequency of bingeing
HeightBaseline in experimental and control groupsHeight measurement will be quantified in centimetres using a measuring tape
LDLBaseline in experimental and control groupsLDL measurement will be quantified mg/dL using a blood test
Eating Attitude test (EAT-26)Baseline in experimental and control groupsThe EAT-26 had three subscales Dieting, Bulimia and Food Preocupation, and Oral Control. It is and abbreviated version of the original EAT-40, having an excellent correlation. In the EAT-26 each item is answered on a 6-point Lickert scale and if the scoring is 20 or higher the patient should look for professional advice. The Eat-26 had an elevated reliability
Cholesterol totalBaseline in experimental and control groupsCholesterol total measurement will be quantified mg/dL using a blood test
Sociodemographic data Gender, age, marital status, education, occupation, economical levelBaseline in experimental and control groups
Abdominal perimeterBaseline in experimental and control groupsw-up in experimental and control groupsAbdominal perimeter measurement will be quantified in centimetres using a measuring tape
HDLBaseline in experimental and control groupsHDL measurement will be quantified mg/dL using a blood test
GlucoseBaseline in experimental and control groupsGlucose measurement will be quantified mg/dL using a blood test
Alanine aminotransferaseBaseline in experimental and control groupsAlanine aminotransferase measurement will be quantified U/L using a blood test
Glycated haemoglobinBaseline in experimental and control groupsGlycated haemoglobin measurement will be quantified in percentage (%) using a blood test
General Anxiety DisorderBaseline in experimental and control groupsIt is one of the most frequently used diagnostic self-report scales for screening, diagnosis and anxiety disorder severity assessment, defined as an excessive anxiety and worry (apprehensive expectation) related to a number of events or activities, associated to experiencing difficulties to control that worry. Items are rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale (between 0 = not at all and 3 = nearly every day). The GAD-7 inquires about events happening over the last two weeks, in order to know how often the patient has been bothered by them
Patient Health QuestionnaireBaseline in experimental and control groupsThis scale is one of the most widely used questionnaires that assess the intensity of depression in pharmacological and psychological studies, it is useful to monitor changes experienced by patients over time. Through items like Little interest or pleasure in doing things and using a Liker-type scale from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day), the PHQ-9 reflects the experience of participants during the last two weeks.
The diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and the systolic blood pressure (SBP)Baseline in experimental and control groupsIn order to evaluate the vital signs we will use a vascular screening system, in the version VaSera VS-1500.
WeightBaseline in experimental and control groupsWeight measurement will be quantified in kilograms using a digital scale

Countries

Spain

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 20, 2026