An interventional study of Website and Usual Care in Overweight and Obese, sponsored by Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 21 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2015-09-01.
Sponsored by Milton S. Hershey Medical Center · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of the social-enabled internet weight loss and diet change intervention with the delayed treatment group for 3 months. We will study the effect of adding social interactions and supports to an Internet weight loss and diet change intervention. The website intervention will have action planning with social interactions and support features for sharing, reusing, recommending, and discussing strategies for improving habits. We hypothesize that the intervention group with access to the website will lose more weight than the delayed treatment group after three months.
Over the past two decades a very simple, low-cost and consistently effective intervention has been developed that we believe has potential to be disseminated online in primary care. The intervention, "action planning" (AP), is also known as "if-then planning" or "implementation intentions". Action Planning is one element of the process of self-regulation (Wing et al 2006; Luszczynska et al 2007), in which individuals identify (1) situations that challenge their ability to perform a behavior and (2) make a specific plan for what they will do when the situation is next encountered. Luszczynska and colleagues observed that adding a single session of action planning onto a portion-controlled meal intervention increased the weight lost from 2.1 kg to 4.2 kg (Luszczynska et al 2007). A meta-analysis of 94 studies using AP, nearly all of which included a single-dose, observed a mean effect size of Cohen's d=.65, consistent with a medium to large effect. Studies of repeated doses appear to have even greater effects (Chapman and Armitage 2010). Dr. Sciamanna recently completed a pilot feasibility study in which 53 subjects used an AP intervention for weight loss for 2 months. All subjects attended a 1-hour introductory session about the use of portion-controlled meals and pedometers. Subjects were then emailed one AP writing prompt each day, representing one of the 21 of the most common barriers to weight control (Bond et al 2001). Despite receiving no personalized feedback, over 2 months the subjects wrote action plans, on an average of 4.2 days per week. After 2 months, the average weight loss was 7.7 pounds. These adherence levels, though short-term, are greater than typical web-based weight control interventions included in a recent Cochrane review (Wieland 2012). This pilot study suggests that this low-cost intervention approach may have unusual levels of fidelity. Even though the average activities of user engagement with AP is quite high in the first two months, there is a slight decline toward the third month. In focus group discussions after a pilot conducted by Dr. Sciamanna in the Philadelphia area, participants of the pilot indicated consistent difficulties in coming up with ideas for habits that might be useful. These observations motivates this proposed study.
3,670 studies on the registry are indexed under Overweight; 849 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 102 is above the median of 73 across 3,175 interventional studies indexed under Overweight.
Browse Overweight studies →Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is the lead sponsor of 480 studies on the registry; 61 are open to participants now.
Of its 56 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 42 (75%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria:
Group will be asked to complete a daily plan online for specific situations that tempt people to overeat. The website can be accessed online using a computer or smart phone and will allow participants to view others' plans. Participants will also be asked to enter their weight online every week.
Behavioral: Website · Behavioral: Usual Care
Group will be given access to the online intervention after the 3-month study ends.
Behavioral: Usual Care
Website will have action planning with social interactions and support features for sharing, reusing, and recommending strategies for improving habits.
Participants will record their weight and complete surveys online.
Body Weight
Body weight will be measured by a research assistant using a portable, digital scale.
Time frame: 3 months
Demographics
We will measure age, gender, race and ethnicity, smoking status, education and other demographics, based on standard self-report.
Time frame: 3 months
Hospital and Anxiety Scale
This self-assessment scale has been found to be a reliable instruction for detecting states of depression and anxiety.
Time frame: 3 months
International Physical Activity Questionnaire
The survey comprises a set of 4 questionnaires. The purpose of the questionnaires is to provide common instruments that can be used to obtain internationally comparable data on health-related physical activity.
Time frame: 3 months
Medications
We will measure dose and quantity of all prescribed medications based on standard self-report.
Time frame: 3 months
Motivation scale
This questionnaire asks participants how motivated they are to control their weight using non-comparative scaling.
Time frame: 3 months
Three Factor Eating Questionnaire
The questionnaire measures three dimensions of dietary restraint: cognitive restraint, disinhibition, perceived hunger.
Time frame: 3 months
Weight Loss Habits
This questionnaire asks participants to rate their frequency of use of weight loss habits using non-comparative scaling.
Time frame: 3 months
Adherence
We will examine daily journal completion data overall (mean and median) and as percentage.
Time frame: 3 months
Satisfaction
This questionnaire asks participants to provide feedback about the study.
Time frame: 3 months
Sedentary Behavior Questionnaire
Time frame: 3 months
Well Being
Time frame: 3 months
Weight Efficacy Questionnaire
Time frame: 3 months
This study is completed, as verified in Aug 2015. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Milton S. Hershey Medical Center