The Experience of Affective Touch in Obesity

Recruiting

• Conditions: Obesity
• Interventions: Behavioral: Affective touch paradigm

• Registration Number: NCT05768685
• Lead Sponsor: Istituto Auxologico Italiano

Brief Summary

The aim of the present research is to verify if the pleasantness of affective touch is comparable between women with obesity and healthy women, while measuring the level of social anhedonia and the lifespan experience of affective touch.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2021-10-13
• Study First Submitted: 2023-02-22
• Status Verified: 2023-03
• Study First Submitted QC: 2023-03-03
• Last Update Submitted: 2023-03-03
• Study First Posted: 2023-03-14
• Last Update Posted: 2023-03-14
• Primary Completion: 2023-10-01
• Study Completion: 2023-10-01

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: Female
• Target Recruitment: 60

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

• Concurrent neurological, neurodevelopmental (e.g., autism), motor, somatosensory and/or psychiatric disorders
• Evidence of any skin-related condition possibly affecting sensitivity on the participants' forearm (e.g., eczema, scars).

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Cases	Affective touch paradigm	Right-handed women diagnosed with obesity will be consecutively recruited during their rehabilitative treatment at the Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, San Giuseppe Hospital (Italy). Concurrent neurological, neurodevelopmental (e.g., autism), motor, somatosensory and/or psychiatric disorders will be exclusion criteria, as well as the evidence of any skin-related condition possibly affecting sensitivity on the participants' forearm (e.g., eczema, scars)
Controls	Affective touch paradigm	Age-matched, right-handed, healthy women (i.e., with no history of eating disorders) will be recruited outside the hospital through personal contacts of the researchers and word-of-mouth.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Rating of subjective pleasantness	baseline	Behavioural outcome associated with the experimental paradigm: participants will be asked to rate the pleasantness of the tactile stimuli after each stimulation with a score ranging from zero not pleasant at all) to 100 (extremely pleasant).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Affective experience score	baseline	The lifespan experience of affective touch in close relationships will be assessed with the Tactile Biography questionnaire (TBIO, Beltrán et al., 2020). This includes a 29-item self-report measure scored on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (e.g., not at all true for me) to 5 (e.g., extremely true) that evaluate four independent components: the frequency of and satisfaction for affective touch i) in childhood/adolescence and ii) adulthood, iii) comfort with and iv) fondness for interpersonal touch in close relationships
Social anhedonia score	baseline	Social anhedonia will be evaluated with the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS, Gooding and Pflum, 2014); this is a 17-item self-report measure of individuals' tendency to look forward to interactions with others (anticipatory interpersonal pleasure - 7 items) and experienced pleasure in social interactions (consummatory interpersonal pleasure - 10 items). The ACIPS is scored on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (very false for me) to 6 (very true for me); higher scores indicate higher anticipatory and consummatory interpersonal pleasure.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano - Ospedale San Giuseppe; 🇮🇹 Piancavallo, VCO, Italy