Listening to a Mindful Eating Podcast With Theory and Practice, Listening to a Podcast on Food Education, Listening to a Theoretical Mindful Eating Podcast
Conditions
Keywords
Mindful Eating, bodily awareness, mHealth, well-being, food education, Mindfulness
Brief summary
This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of a mindful eating intervention focused on listening to podcast. The intervention is delivered via mobile application in a sample drawn from the healthy adult population.
Detailed description
This study investigates the short-term effects of a two-week app-based mindful eating intervention delivered through MyPocketHealth. The intervention is designed to promote greater awareness of eating experiences, including sensory perception, emotional states, and behavioral patterns related to food consumption. Participants receive daily training exercises and short audio modules tailored to the principles of mindfulness applied to eating. Throughout the 14-day program, participants complete daily momentary assessments assessing mood, attention, and eating-related awareness. Additional pre- and post-intervention questionnaires evaluate psychological well-being (WHO-5), cognitive failures (CFQ), eating behavior styles (DEBQ), and mindful eating skills (MEQ). Dietary habits, intake of specific food groups and dispositional mindfulness are also assessed to explore possible changes associated with the intervention. The primary aim of the study is to evaluate changes in psychological well-being and mindful eating from baseline to the end of the intervention. Secondary aims include assessing changes in cognitive functioning, eating behavior patterns, and day-to-day fluctuations in mood and attentional engagement with the training materials. Group differences are explored across three experimental conditions, which vary in the level of content emphasis. Group 1 listens to general food-related podcast (MEE), group 2 listens to a podcast discussing theoretical information about mindful eating (MET), while group 3 listens to a podcast that, besides theoretical information, also offers daily practices (MEP).
Interventions
BEHAVIORALMindful Eating Practice
Participants complete a 14-day app-based program delivered through daily notifications and short audio content focused on experiential mindful eating components, including awareness of the five senses and interoceptive skills. They also complete specific guided exercises designed to cultivate these abilities. Each day, participants receive two notifications and one short audio, accompanied by brief self-report assessments evaluating mood, attention, and engagement.
BEHAVIORALMindful Eating Theory
Participants complete a 14-day app-based program delivered through daily notifications and short audio content focused exclusively on the theoretical aspects of mindful eating, without the experiential exercises included in the practice condition. They also complete specific guided exercises designed to cultivate these abilities. Each day, participants receive two notifications and one short audio, accompanied by brief self-report assessments evaluating mood, attention, and engagement.
BEHAVIORALMindful Eating Education
Participants complete a 14-day app-based program delivered through daily notifications and short audio content promoting evidence-based healthy eating practices, such as adequate water intake and reduced consumption of refined foods, based on findings from authoritative scientific research. They also complete specific guided exercises designed to cultivate these abilities. Each day, participants receive two notifications and one short audio, accompanied by brief self-report assessments evaluating mood, attention, and engagement.
Sponsors
Marco D'Addario
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Investigator)
Masking description
The baseline assessment, the intervention, and the post-intervention assessment are provided automatically via the mobile app. In addition, participants are randomly assigned to a specific experimental group before starting the study and do not know which experimental group they are assigned. These features of the study minimize observer bias.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 55 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* owning a smartphone
Exclusion criteria
* presence of diagnosed eating disorders
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mood assessment | Immediately before and after each daily session over the 14-day period | Mood was assessed daily throughout the 14-day intervention period using five single-item Likert scales (1-10). Participants rated their momentary levels of stress, mental clarity, calmness, happiness, and restlessness. |
| Mindful Eating Awareness | At baseline and at the end of the 14-day intervention period | To assess Mindful Eating Awareness, we used the Mindful Eating Questionnaire (MEQ), a tool developed to measure the degree of awareness during eating behavior. In the Italian abbreviated version (Clementi, Casu, \& Gremigni, 2017), the instrument consists of 20 items rated on a 4-point Likert scale (from 1 = 'Never' to 4 = 'Always') and is divided into two subscales: awareness and recognition. |
| Bodily Sensation | Immediately after each daily session over the 14-day period | Bodily sensation was assessed daily throughout the 14-day intervention period using five single-item Likert scales (1-10). |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| WHO-5 Well-Being Index score | At baseline and at the end of the 14-day intervention period | Well-being was assessed using the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, a self-report questionnaire that measures subjective psychological well-being over the previous two weeks. The scale consists of five positively worded items rated on a 6-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating greater well-being. |
| Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) score | At baseline and at the end of the 14-day intervention period | Cognitive efficiency was evaluated using the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ), a self-report measure assessing the frequency of everyday cognitive lapses over the previous two weeks. The questionnaire consists of 25 items, each describing common cognitive slips involving attention, memory, or action execution (e.g., forgetting why one entered a room, losing focus during tasks, or misplacing objects). Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 ("Never") to 4 ("Very often"), with higher scores indicating more frequent cognitive failures. |
Countries
Italy
Contacts
STUDY_DIRECTORPatrizia Steca
University of Milan-Bicocca
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORMaria Elide Vanutelli
University of Milan-Bicocca
Outcome results
None listed