A Brief Appetite Awareness Intervention for Eating and Weight Regulation Among College Freshmen: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

The pervasiveness of obesity within our society has become a leading public health concern. Weight loss interventions are largely ineffective over the long run, thus researchers are turning their efforts toward weight gain prevention approaches. Given that the time of greatest change in dietary quality and incidence of obesity is during young adulthood, it would seem that prevention approaches would ideally target this population. Currently, most prevention programs utilize informational approaches (i.e., providing nutrition education) and/or are time intensive. Although these approaches show small short-term effects, Appetite Awareness Training (AAT), delivered in a brief group format, may offer a low-cost intervention aimed at sustainable skills. With an emphasis placed on an individual's ability to eat intuitively based on bodily hunger and satiety cues, AAT transforms an individual's approach to eating, instilling long lasting awareness of one's eating habits. This study evaluated the efficacy of a brief AAT intervention versus a standard nutrition information intervention (NE) versus a notreatment control. Freshman women (n=34) were randomly assigned to one of the three groups. Changes in weight, BMI, eating self-regulation, and other psychosocial variables were assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and 18 weeks post-intervention. Preliminary results show brief interventions (AAT and NE) to supersede no intervention with regards to ability to prevent unintended weight gain. Further, AAT participants showed greater confidence in efficaciously managing their weight and refraining from eating due to external influences.