ACT for Healthy Living: a Brief Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Intervention for Women With Obesity

The University of Alabama at Birmingham

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: ACT workshop

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05885438

IRB-300010404

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to investigate if a 4-hour acceptance and commitment therapy workshop can help the adoption and maintenance of healthy lifestyle behaviors in women with obesity. The objectives are as follows:

1. To assess changes in ACT-related constructs before and after the workshop
2. To assess changes in other psychological constructs that have been shown to hinder successful weight management before and after the workshop
3. To assess changes in dietary and physical activity behaviors before and after the workshop. Participants will complete baseline questionnaires and anthropometric measures at three time points: baseline, 1 week after the workshop, and 1 month after the workshop. Researchers will compare an active intervention group to a waitlist control group to investigate the efficacy of the workshop.

Full description

Acceptance and commitment therapy interventions demonstrate efficacy for weight loss. ACT-based workshops represent an innovative and potentially scalable application of this approach to obesity treatment. 70 women will be recruited to participate. Half of the participants (n = 35) will receive a brief ( approximately 4-hour) workshop that aims to facilitate the development and maintenance of healthy lifestyle behaviors using ACT principles such as valued living and committed action. Outcomes will be assessed at baseline, 1-week, and 1-month post-intervention.

Enrollment: 52 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 40 to 70 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Inclusion criteria will be individuals who self-identify as women, have a BMI of >30.0 kg/m2 based on self-reported height and weight, are able to read and understand written and spoken English, and have a primary residence within 50 miles driving distance of the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus.

Exclusion criteria

• Exclusion criteria will include presence of eating disorder symptoms (assessed by participant self-report for a former or current diagnosis) presence of a major mood disorder (assessed by participant self-report of a current or former diagnosis), recent weight change of +/-10 pounds, recent use of prescription medication for weight loss, and current participation in another weight management program.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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52 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the intervention group will receive the ACT workshop

Treatment:

Behavioral: ACT workshop

Waitlist Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in the waitlist control group will not receive the intervention until all members of the intervention group have received the workshop. Once all members of the intervention group have received the workshop, participants in the waitlist control group will be able to receive the workshop if they so desire.