Implementation Intentions for Weight Loss and Dietary Change in College Students With Overweight and Obesity

Summary

One in three college students have overweight or obesity and are in need of brief and simple weight loss interventions that complement their unstructured lifestyles. Implementation intentions, a strategy that connects a goal-aligned behavior to a cue, facilitate goal-attainment for a wide variety of health-behaviors, but have not been tested as a stand-alone treatment for weight loss in students. College students with overweight or obesity (N = 95) were randomized to one of three conditions: an implementation intention group (IMP), an enhanced implementation intention group (IMP+) that included text message reminders and fluency training (i.e., training for speed and accuracy), and a control goal intention group (GOL) for four weeks. Participants completed anthropometric and self-report assessments pre- and post-treatment as well as experience-sampling assessments during the study to assess how implementation intentions contribute more directly to behavior change

Conditions

• Obesity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Implementation Intentions

Implementation intentions aid in pre-planning and habitualization of behaviors, as they serve to identify the when, where, and how of behaviors leading to goal attainment. Often taking the form of "If/when situation x arises, then I will do y!", implementation intentions can be conceptualized in two parts, namely, an environmental or internal retrieval cue and a goal-directed behavioral response. Implementation intentions are effective because they 1) create a strong association between a retrieval cue and a goal-aligned behavior, increasing the likelihood that the goal-aligned behavior will be retrieved and utilized when the cue is encountered, and 2) increase attention for and cognitive accessibility of the retrieval cue, increasing opportunities for goal-aligned action .

BEHAVIORAL

Fluency Training

Fluency training is a learning strategy that requires an individual to perform a skill or demonstrate knowledge repeatedly for both accuracy and response rate; the goal is to enhance automaticity of the response and promote endurance and retention of skills and knowledge over time and in the face of distractors. Participants completed 1 minute fluency training protocol 4 times throughout the study.

BEHAVIORAL

Text Messages

SMS reminders sent to phone of implementation intentions 16 times throughout the study.

BEHAVIORAL

Goal Intentions

Intentions to complete a goal that do not specify a plan about how to do so (compared to implementation intentions, that do)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Washington University School of Medicine

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

25 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-06-01

Primary Completion

2018-06-30

Completion

2018-06-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations