The Impact of a Podcast-based Body Image Intervention Among Millennial Women

Summary

The goal of this three-arm randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the acceptability and efficacy of two podcast-based interventions -- a podcast with an accompanying journal and the same podcast without a journal -- which aim to improve body confidence among millennial-aged women (29-44 years of age) in the United Kingdom.

A total of 1800 women in the UK (29-44 years), who are podcast listeners, will be recruited by a research agency. Participants will be randomised to one of three groups: body confidence podcast episode with journal; body confidence podcast episode alone; a non-body confidence-related podcast episode from the same series as the intervention podcast.

The research aims are to determine the following:

1. Are the two versions of the intervention (i.e., podcast with and without a journal) effective in improving appearance esteem (primary outcome), internalisation of appearance ideals, self-objectification, and weight esteem among UK-based women (i) 1 day post-intervention and (ii) 1 week post-intervention, compared to a control podcast?
2. Are the two interventions (i.e., podcast with and without a journal) effective in generating immediate change in state body satisfaction and state mood, compared to a control podcast?
3. Are the two versions of the intervention acceptable to women?

Conditions

• Body Image

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Body confidence podcast episode and supplementary exercises in a journal

The 52-minute long podcast episode is hosted on the How to Fail podcast featuring a conversation between its host, Elizabeth Day, and the guest, actor and activist, Pamela Anderson ("It wasn't about being pretty, it was about being brave"). The podcast episode is accompanied by supplementary exercises in a journal to reinforce the body confidence messages shared during the episode. The 8-page journal ("Beauty on Your Own Terms") consists of two primary activities. The first activity ("A vision for your future") involves 3 questions, a 3-minute visualisation exercise, and a prompt for written reflection all intended to facilitate "accepting your body as it is, rejecting societal and media pressures that define beauty narrowly, and defining beauty on your own terms." The second activity ("Beauty-on-your-own-terms challenge") involves 4 exercises intended to help women reflect on what they can "change about your routine and habits to start defining beauty on your own terms".

BEHAVIORAL

Body confidence podcast episode

The podcast episode is hosted on the How to Fail podcast featuring a conversation between its host, Elizabeth Day, and the guest, actor and activist, Pamela Anderson ("It wasn't about being pretty, it was about being brave").

BEHAVIORAL

Non-body image-related podcast episode

A podcast episode from the same podcast series as the intervention, How to Fail, which contains no body image content and is matched on length and guest similarities. The episode features host Elizabeth Day in conversation with actor and activist Cynthia Nixon ("Being brave is feeling scared and doing it anyway"), which is 47 minutes in length.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Unilever R&D

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• C&R Research, Inc.

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• University of the West of England

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Kirsty Garbett, DPhil · University of the West of England

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

29 Years

Max Age

44 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-08-19

Primary Completion

2025-10-30

Completion

2025-11-15

Countries

• United States

Study Locations