Department of Psychology, Paris Lodron Universitat Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Salzburg, Austria.
BMJ Open. 2023 Apr 25;13(4):e070443. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070443.
Unhealthy eating behaviour is a major contributor to obesity and related diseases and is associated with a behavioural bias to approach rather than avoid desired foods, as measured with reaction time tasks. Approach-avoidance interventions (AAIs) have been proposed as a way to modify food evaluations and help people to eat in accordance with their dietary goals. Mobile implementations of AAI might be easily accessible, low threshold interventions, but their effectiveness has not been established yet.
Participants who aim to change their eating behaviour are randomised to intervention or control groups. They complete six sessions of a smartphone-based AAI, in which they push (ie, avoid) or pull (ie, approach) personalised food images. Intervention group participants always avoid foods that they personally want to eat less often and approach foods that they personally want to eat more often. In the control group, images are paired equally often with both response directions. To evaluate contextual and dynamic intervention effects, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is measured throughout, with questions about food intake, hunger, stress, emotions, eating intentions, food craving and impulsivity twice a day. Additional EMA preintervention and postintervention measures are administered before and after the intervention phase (4 days each) with a 1-day follow-up EMA 4 weeks after the intervention. Multilevel models will examine the temporal covariance between approach bias and self-reported variables as well as short-term and long-term intervention effects on approach bias, food intake and craving.
The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Salzburg. Results will be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presented at scientific conferences.
German Clinical Trials Register DRKS, registration number DRKS00030780.
不健康的饮食习惯是导致肥胖和相关疾病的主要因素，并且与一种行为偏见有关，即接近而不是避免想吃的食物，这可以通过反应时间任务来衡量。接近-回避干预（AAI）被提议作为一种改变食物评价和帮助人们根据饮食目标进食的方法。基于移动设备的 AAI 可能更容易获得且门槛较低，但它们的有效性尚未得到证实。
旨在改变饮食行为的参与者被随机分配到干预组或对照组。他们完成六轮基于智能手机的 AAI，在其中他们推动（即回避）或拉动（即接近）个性化的食物图像。干预组的参与者总是回避他们个人想要少吃的食物，而接近他们个人想要多吃的食物。在对照组中，图像与两种反应方向的配对频率相等。为了评估情境和动态干预效果，通过每天两次的饮食摄入、饥饿感、压力、情绪、饮食意图、食物渴望和冲动的问题，进行整个过程中的生态瞬时评估（EMA）。在干预阶段（每天 4 天）前后进行额外的 EMA 预干预和后干预测量，并在干预后 4 周进行 1 天的 EMA 随访。多层模型将检查接近偏差和自我报告变量之间的时间协方差，以及短期和长期干预对接近偏差、食物摄入和渴望的影响。
该研究得到了萨尔茨堡大学伦理委员会的批准。结果将发表在同行评议的科学期刊上，并在科学会议上展示。
德国临床试验注册处 DRKS，注册号 DRKS00030780。
