Using Technology to Improve Eating Disorders Treatment
- Conditions
- Eating Disorders
- Interventions
- Behavioral: StudentBodies - Eating Disorders
- Registration Number
- NCT02076464
- Lead Sponsor
- Washington University School of Medicine
- Brief Summary
The purpose is to evaluate a technologically-enhanced, guided self-help program to reduce eating disorder outcomes in college-age women.
- Detailed Description
Colleges are faced with an elevated prevalence of eating disorders, yet less than 20% of students report receiving treatment. Inadequacies in mental health care delivery result in prolonged illness, disease progression, poorer prognosis, and greater likelihood of relapse, highlighting the need for improved modalities for screening and intervention. Over the past 20 years, we have developed a comprehensive, online platform through which we identify and offer tailored evidence-based interventions to individuals across the eating disorder risk and diagnostic spectrum, using minimal person-based resources. The newest intervention in our suite of programs, Student Bodies-Eating Disorders (SB-ED), has not yet been tested in a large-scale trial or via platform delivery. The aim of this study is to conduct the first national deployment of our comprehensive platform and demonstrate that our transdiagnostic guided self-help program, SB-ED, yields measurable and significant improvements in access, costs, and outcomes for eating disorder treatment over referral to usual care (i.e., treatment per protocol at students' corresponding college's mental health services center).
Twenty-eight colleges will be randomly assigned to receive either SB-ED or referral to usual care. We will enroll at least 650 students from these campuses who screen positive for a DSM-5 clinical or subclinical eating disorder (excluding anorexia nervosa, which warrants more intensive medical monitoring). Outcomes will be measured at 6-months, 1-year, and 2-years following the completion of the online screen.
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- COMPLETED
- Sex
- Female
- Target Recruitment
- 690
- Student at a participating college or university ages 18-30
- Screen positive for DSM-5 bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, or a subclinical eating disorder
- Screen positive for DSM-5 anorexia nervosa
- No access to the internet
- Acutely suicidal
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- PARALLEL
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description StudentBodies - Eating Disorders StudentBodies - Eating Disorders Participants will participate in the StudentBodies - Eating Disorders program
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Change in eating disorder symptoms Measured at baseline, 6-months, 1-year, and 2-years Eating disorder outcomes will be measured using the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Comorbid symptom severity and impairment 2 years Symptom Severity includes depression, anxiety, alcohol use, eating disorder associated clinical impairment, and academic impairment. These symptoms will be measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire, the PROMIS anxiety questionnaire, an assessment of binge drinking, the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms, the Clinical Impairment Assessment, and academic transcripts (when available).
Realized treatment access 2 years Realized treatment access is defined as receipt of eating disorder treatment and will be measured using medical records (when available) and a Health Care Utilization Questionnaire
Eating disorder behavior abstinence rates 2 years Rates of bingeing and purging will be measured using the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire
Service and implementation costs up to 5 years Service and implementation costs will be assessed based on published rates.