Managing Our Relationship With Food and Eating (NOURISH)

University of Lethbridge

Status: Completed

Conditions: Eating Habit; Mental Health Wellness 1; Eating Behavior; Stress, Psychological

Treatments: Behavioral: Trauma Informed Psychotherapy; Behavioral: Trauma Informed Yoga

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04797689

2021 - 020

Details and patient eligibility

About

There is a need for population-level intervention research to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on disordered eating and unhealthy eating behaviours. Systematic reviews have demonstrated that psychotherapy and yoga can help to reduce binge eating and disordered eating habits, however, these interventions were tested in person. Studies examining the effectiveness of these interventions in an online, group-based format are warranted. In 2019, the investigators launched a RCT to test gender-stratified group interventions to address mental health and addictive behaviours among community-based adults in southern Alberta. The investigators implemented this intervention with more than 200 adults in person before this study was paused due to COVID-19; In 2020, the investigators adapted this intervention for online delivery to 200 community-dwelling women across Alberta. The most recent iteration of this study indicated the participants were particularly concerned about their relationship with food and how they were engaging in different eating behaviours to cope with the stress of COVID-19.

Full description

The primary objective of this project is to adapt two existing mental health and substance use interventions and RCT for online delivery to address unhealthy eating behaviours and a negative relationship with food for women within the context of COVID-19. The second objective is to test if an online group body-oriented intervention (trauma-sensitive yoga) that has been designed to increase awareness of physical sensations, is superior to an online group verbal narrative intervention (mental wellness talking circle), and to control group. The investigators theorize that the body-oriented intervention may offer the opportunity to reprogram automatic physiologic hyperarousal in response to COVID-19 triggers and increase positive body awareness, and mindful attention to the ways in which habitual self-protective behaviours, like unhealthy eating behaviours, may be impacting health. The third objective is to examine the impacts of the interventions on adults with pre-existing mental health and disordered eating issues, and those with previous experiences that may make them more susceptible to these problems during COVID-19. The investigators will track other supports they engage in during the study and the perceived impacts of these supports on their outcomes with the goal of shedding light on how to best match COVID-19 related services to adults who need them the most.

Enrollment: 158 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 75 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Women between 18-75 years living in Alberta, Canada
• Need to have reliable access to the internet, a device with a webcam for the next 2 months
• Need to self-identify that they are currently struggling with at least one of: stress eating, alcohol use, drug use, tobacco use, or gambling during the pandemic

Exclusion criteria

• Non-community dwelling
• Not currently residing in Alberta, Canada

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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158 participants in 3 patient groups

Trauma Informed Yoga

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will receive 12 x 60 min group-based yoga sessions, delivered synchronously over Zoom.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Trauma Informed Yoga

Trauma Informed Psychotherapy

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will receive 12 x 120 min group-based psychotherapy sessions, delivered synchronously over Zoom.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Trauma Informed Psychotherapy

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

These participants will not receive an intervention.