The 'balance intervention' for promoting caloric compensatory behaviours in response to overeating: a formative evaluation

Abstract

To help people prevent weight gain, the Netherlands Nutrition Centre initiated the 'balance intervention', which promotes moderation of food intake and/or increased physical activity in response to occasions of overeating. The aim of this study was to determine whether intervention materials were appreciated, encouraged information seeking and increased motivation and caloric compensatory behaviours. A three-group randomized trial with pre-intervention measures (n = 963, response 86%) and post-intervention measures (n = 857) using electronic questionnaires was conducted among participants aged 25-40 years, recruited from an Internet research panel. The first group received a printed brochure and electronic newsletters (print group), the second group was exposed to radio advertisements (radio group) and the third group was the control group. Multiple regression analyses were used to investigate the impact of the materials on self-reported prevalence of overeating, attitudes, perceived behavioural control, intentions and compensatory behaviours. At follow-up, we found significantly more positive attitudes, intentions and dietary action in the print and radio groups. However, participants who received the radio advertisement had a significantly lower perceived behavioural control. No effects were found on the prevalence of overeating. The results indicate that the intervention materials have potential for increasing people's attitudes, motivation and self-reported behaviour actions, with a possible negative side-effect on perceived behavioural control.

What young Dutch adults say they do to keep from gaining weight: self-reported prevalence of overeating, compensatory behaviours and specific weight control behaviours

“…We decided to combine the data of the control and intervention groups since we found no differences between groups for any of the relevant variables, including body mass index (BMI) and sociodemographics. The exception was ‘compensatory behaviours’, which were reported significantly more frequently in both the intervention groups 19 . For the descriptive data on the prevalence of compensatory behaviour, we therefore used the data of the control group only.…”

“…The Balance Intervention study made use of a self-developed questionnaire. The questionnaire was tested for reliability by analysing test–retest reliability, and the internal consistency of the scales was established in the sample of the present study with Cronbach's α 19 .…”

“…To be eligible for the study, participants had to be: (1) aged 20-40 years; (2) not currently pregnant; (3) willing to receive a brochure in the post at their home address and be able to listen to recordings of radio advertising on their home computer; and (4) not planning to be on holiday during the 4-week intervention and data collection period. As a reward for participating in the study, the members of the Internet research panel received a gift voucher 19 .…”

One More Bite? Inferring Food Consumption Level of College Students Using Smartphone Sensing and Self-Reports

“…In prior research, food consumption level has had both objective interpretations (nutrition science-based) [28,113,137] and subjective ones (nutrition and psychology-based) [40,98,123,125,131,137], and there is no unique way to define it [49,69]. The objective food consumption level attempts to capture the exact calorie consumption during eating episodes from a purely nutritional standpoint.…”