Leveraging Social Media to Identify and Connect Teens With Eating Disorders to a Mobile Guided Self-Help Mobile Intervention

The Washington University

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 1

Conditions: Eating Disorders

Treatments: Device: Space From Body and Eating Concerns- Teen

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT04636840

1R34MH119170-01

Details and patient eligibility

About

Clinical or subclinical eating disorders (EDs) impact 10% of individuals in their lifetime and are marked by significant functional impairment, early mortality, chronicity, and emotional distress. ED symptoms often emerge in adolescence, with peak onset age in the teenage years. Early recognition and treatment of these devastating illnesses are needed to prevent long-term consequences and a chronic course. Most (80%) individuals with EDs, including teens with EDs (TwEDs), do not receive treatment. Due to major barriers to access and to the delivery of treatment for TwEDs, there is a need for a new model of service delivery that can identify and help TwEDs. We demonstrated our ability to harness social media to identify and efficiently recruit large numbers of TwEDs. Our team has successfully developed a guided self-help cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based mobile app for previous studies and have adapted this app to address the specific needs of TwEDs. In proposed study, we will test this updated mHealth intervention, which includes simplified language and tailored content relevant to adolescent issues and a social networking feature designed to facilitate group exchanges. This mHealth intervention will be investigated among 161 TwEDs recruited from Instagram/Facebook to test preliminary efficacy and feasibility of this mHealth intervention to improved eating disorder symptoms among TwEDs not currently engaged in treatment. We will also garnering feedback via a mixed methods approach on the efficiency, technical effectiveness, and satisfaction with mHealth intervention content and features. Participants will be randomized to one of 3 study arms, including a control group (self-help version of the app), a group with access to the coached mobile app only, and a group with access to the coached mobile app plus social networking feature. We hypothesized that those with access to the coached mobile app intervention will have improved ED outcomes in comparison to the control group, and that those with access to the additional social networking feature will have the most improvement in ED symptoms out of all three groups.

Enrollment: 161 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 14 to 17 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• US Resident
• Owns or has daily access to an iOS or Android smartphone
• English-speaking
• Screen Positive for a DSM-5 subclinical/clinical eating disorder other than anorexia nervosa (AN) or at high risk for an eating disorder

Exclusion criteria

• Currently Engaged in eating disorder treatment
• Screen Positive for Anorexia Nervosa
• Wards of the State or Foster Children

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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161 participants in 3 patient groups

Control Group

No Intervention group

Description:

Access to a self-help version of Space From Body and Eating Concerns Program on SilverCloud Health App

Experimental Group A- Mobile App with Social Networking Feature

Experimental group

Description:

Access to a coached Space From Body and Eating Concerns program on SilverCloud Health App with private social media group for social networking support.

Treatment:

Device: Space From Body and Eating Concerns- Teen

Experimental Group B- Mobile App Only

Experimental group

Description:

Access to a coached Space From Body and Eating Concerns program on SilverCloud Health App.

Treatment:

Device: Space From Body and Eating Concerns- Teen