The Effectiveness of an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness Group Intervention for Enhancing the Psychological and Physical Well-Being of Adults with Overweight or Obesity Seeking Treatment: The Mind&Life Randomized Control Trial Study Protocol

Abstract

Although several interventions that target obesity have been examined, the success of these interventions in generating and maintaining positive results has yet to be confirmed. This study protocol therefore presents a trial aimed at analyzing the effectiveness of a well-being-centered acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)- and mindfulness-based group intervention following the valued-based healthy living (VHL) approach (Mind&Life intervention) for individuals experiencing overweight-related distress. A randomized controlled trial with two parallel groups will be conducted in 110 adults attending primary care units with overweight or obesity. Participants will be randomly allocated to one of the two study conditions. Interventions will either be the treatment as usual (TAU) or the Mind&Life intervention—an ACT- and mindfulness-based intervention—plus the TAU intervention. Quality of life, weight self-stigma, general health status, eating habits, physical activity, eating behavior, anthropometric, body composition, cardiovascular, and physiological variables, as well as process variables, will be examined at baseline, posttreatment, 6-month follow-up, and 1-year follow-up. This trial aims to offer a novel psychological approach for addressing the psychological and physical impairments suffered by people with overweight or obesity in the current environment. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03718728.

Psychometric properties of the Spanish Acceptance and Action Questionnaire for Weight-Related Difficulties–Revised (AAQW-R).

“…This study is part of the Mind&Life project (Iturbe et al, 2021), which has the approval of the Ethics Committee of the Basque Health Service (protocol code: MAI-MIN-2018-01). While snowball sampling was used to recruit some participants, the subsample used to study sensitivity to change was recruited from primary care units of the area.…”

“…The online platform used for data collection was Encuesta Fácil (https://www.encuestafacil.com). Regarding the recruitment of the sample derived from primary care units, the principal researchers of the Mind&Life study to which the present investigation adheres previously contacted medical and nursing professionals of the service to inform people seeking weight management treatment about the Mind&Life study (Iturbe et al, 2021). If interested in participating, they would contact study investigators, who would ensure that the inclusion criteria were met.…”

“…Questionnaires were administered to a total 970 female, male, or nonbinary adults from the general Spanish population, from which 482 consent to participate and 89 did not fully complete the questionnaires, leading to a final sample of 393 participants for the present study. Whereas some subjects of the final sample ( n = 265) were recruited by snowball sampling through social networks, without weight-based conditions set, those participants used to examine sensitivity to change ( n = 128) were derived from primary care units of the region as part of the Mind&Life study (Iturbe et al, 2021), all falling within the overweight or obese range. Finally, two subsamples could be distinguished: Subsample 1 was composed of 168 individuals within the normal weight range (BMI < 25) and Subsample 2 included 225 individuals in the overweight or obesity range (BMI ≥ 25).…”

“…The last two measures were used to estimate individuals’ BMI (kg/m 2 ). Participants from the general population provided self-reported data for BMI estimation, while a nutritionist collected these data of subjects derived from primary care units, as part of the Mind&Life study in which they participated (Iturbe et al, 2021).…”

Effectiveness of a Mindfulness-Based Group Intervention for Chinese University Students with Sleep Problems

“…MBIs emphasize the nonjudgmental focus on and awareness of the present moment, emotional and behavioral self-regulation, and mindfulness meditation practice [ 19 ], and they are appropriate for university students because they are easily learned and can be practiced conveniently in daily life, which increases resilience to stress [ 20 ]. Additionally, MBI with groups has become increasingly popular within universities, since researchers have confirmed that group-based interventions have significant influence on the alleviation of psychological symptoms [ 21 , 22 ].…”