This Special Issue of
on "Eating disorders and nutritional beliefs, trends or practices" contains ten empirical papers that cover various aspects of the topic ....
Abstract
We investigated whether brief non-judgmental focus on the details of one’s non-dominant hand might lead to changes in perception of its size, and if such a change would be related to central ...coherence, body dissatisfaction, or how much participants liked their hand. After two pilot experiments (N = 28 and N = 30 respectively: Appendix 1), a within-subject experiment (N = 82) was conducted. Subjects were mainly university students. They were asked to rate the size of their non-dominant hand and how much they liked it, and the size of an external object (a X-box controller) on a visual-analog scale before and after focusing on their details for 5 min, as well as the size of another object (a calculator) before and after a 5 min long distraction task. After completing the tasks, they were asked to respond to a brief questionnaire on body dissatisfaction. A s significant interaction between time and factors (non-dominant hand, X-box controller and calculator) emerged (
F
(2, 78) = 6.41,
p
= .003). Participants rated their hand as larger after focusing on its details compared to baseline, and this change was significantly larger than those reported for the X-box controller. No significant change in how they liked their hand was observed, and contrary to the pilot experiments, the perceived change in size of the hand was not related to body dissatisfaction. The significant change in reporting of the size of the hand after focusing on its details seems to be an interesting finding, worth further replications.
In an anonymous online study (N = 824), we investigated the frequency of use of appearance and performance-enhancing drugs and supplements (APEDS) in a sample of young men (15−30 years) in Sweden, ...along with their self-reported eating disorder (ED) symptoms, drive for muscularity and sexual orientation. A total of 129 participants (16.1%) reported regular use of supplements (at least once a week), including one individual using anabolic steroids (0.1%), while a lifetime use of APEDS was reported by 32.3%. The overlap between those using protein supplements and creatine was large (83.6%). Some symptoms of ED (e.g., dietary restraint, objective binge eating, self-induced vomiting, and excessive exercise) significantly predicted the use of APEDS. In addition, the use of APEDS was significantly predicted by the drive for muscularity. The prediction was stronger for the behavioral component of drive for muscularity (Exponential B = 8.50, B = 2.14, SE = 0.16, p < 0.001, Negelkerke R2 = 0.517) than for its attitudinal component (Exponential B = 1.52, B = 0.42, SE = 0.06, p < 0.001, Negelkerke R2 = 0.088). A significantly larger proportion of those identifying as heterosexual reported using APEDS (34.4%) compared to those identifying themselves as homosexual (25.0%), bisexual (19.2%) or other (23.7%). Overall, our results suggest that the use of APEDS might be more related to the drive for muscularity and sexual orientation than symptoms of ED.
Teacher decision-making and pedagogical reasoning have been extensively investigated in the last two decades. However, there is a scarcity of research that examines the two constructs together in one ...single study. This study was an attempt to address this gap by implementing a teacher education course using the self-evaluation of teacher talk (SETT) framework that aimed to reshape the decision-making and pedagogical reasoning of ten non-native teachers. Data were collected over a 10-week period through Camtasia, which facilitated video-stimulated recall sessions. Conversation analysis was employed to analyze the interactions in classroom context between the learners and the novice teachers and the interactions between the novices and the first researcher-as-a-participant or experienced teacher. The findings showed that the novices relied on the SETT-oriented metalanguage to justify their decisions after the teacher education course (POST-TEC). In addition, although in the PRE-TEC phase, they lost their temper and codeswitched because of frustration when facing learners’ reticence, they used a number of useful interactive decisions such as avoiding teacher echoes and on-the-spot corrections during discussions in the POST-TEC. It can be concluded that examining the SETT modes separately contributes to our richer understanding of classroom discourse, as each mode has its own specific pedagogic goals that teachers should pay attention to in their classroom decisions. Suggestions for further research and implications for making the decision-making and pedagogical reasoning of language teachers more explicit are provided.
Does higher level of individualization increase treatment efficacy? Fifty patients with bulimia nervosa were randomized into either manual-based (focused) or more individualized (broader) cognitive ...behavioral therapy guided by logical functional analysis. Eating disorders Examination and a series of self-report questionnaires were used for assessment at pre-, and post-treatment as well as at follow-up. Both conditions improved significantly at post-treatment, and the results were maintained at the 6 months follow-up. There were no statistically and clinically significant differences between the two conditions at post-treatment with the exception of abstinence from objective bulimic episodes, eating concerns, and body shape dissatisfaction, all favoring the individualized, broader condition. Both groups improved concerning self-esteem, perceived social support from friends, and depression. The improvements were maintained at follow-up. Ten patients (20%) did not respond to the treatment. Notably, a majority of non-responders (80%) were in the manual-based condition. Non-responders showed extreme dominance of rule-governed behavior, and lack of contact with actual contingencies compared to responders. The study provided preliminary support for the superiority of higher level of individualization (i.e. broader CBT) in terms of the response to treatment, and relapses. However, the magnitude of effects was moderate, and independent replications, with blind assessment procedures, and a larger sample sized are needed before more clear cut conclusions can be drawn.
Optimal use of assessment instruments for the detection and diagnosis of eating disorders (ED) depends on the availability of normative data. The aim of this work was to, for the first time, collect ...norms for both the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and the newly developed Clinical Impairment Assessment (CIA) Scale from a general population of young women in Sweden, as well as from a clinical population of ED patients in Sweden. Participants were composed of both a randomized sample from the general population of women aged 18–30 years (N = 760) as well as from a clinical population aged 18–66 years (N = 2383). Data for the clinical population was extracted from the Stepwise database. Mean scores, standard deviations and percentile ranks for the global for the EDE-Q (as well as its subscales) and the CIA are presented. Prevalence figures of key eating disorder behaviors are also reported. Comparisons are made between the results in the present study with other existing normative studies on the EDE-Q and the CIA. The present study contributes to improving the accuracy of the interpretation of scores of the widely used self-report measure of ED, the EDE-Q, and the CIA, both of which play important roles in for diagnosis, prevention and intervention of ED.
The objective was to (i) assess the long-term cost-effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a workplace dialog intervention (WDI), and ACT+WDI compared to treatment as usual (TAU) ...for common mental disorders and (ii) investigate any differences in cost-effectiveness between diagnostic groups.
An economic evaluation from the healthcare and limited welfare perspectives was conducted alongside a randomized clinical trial with a two-year follow-up period. Persons with common mental disorders receiving sickness benefits were invited to the trial. We used registry data for cost analysis alongside participant data collected during the trial and the reduction in sickness absence days as treatment effect. A total of 264 participants with a diagnosis of depression, anxiety, or stress-induced exhaustion disorder participated in a two-year follow-up of a four-arm trial: ACT (N=74), WDI (N=60), ACT+WDI (N=70), and TAU (N=60).
For all patients in general, there were no statistically significant differences between interventions in terms of costs or effect. The subgroup analyses suggested that from a healthcare perspective, ACT was a cost-effective option for depression or anxiety disorders and ACT+WDI for stress-induced exhaustion disorder. With a two-year time horizon, the probability of WDI to be cost-saving in terms of sickness benefits costs was 80% compared with TAU.
ACT had a high probability of cost-effectiveness from a healthcare perspective for employees on sick leave due to depression or anxiety disorders. For participants with stress-induced exhaustion disorder, adding WDI to ACT seems to reduce healthcare costs, while WDI as a stand-alone intervention seems to reduce welfare costs.
Depression, anxiety and stress are common problems among adolescents. Teaching young people coping strategies in school-based intervention programs is one promising approach hoped to remedy the ...negative consequences of distress in adolescence. The aim of the two pilot studies was to examine the effect of a brief intervention based on the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on depressive symptomatology (Australian study,
N
= 66) and stress (Swedish study,
N
= 32) among adolescents screened for psychosocial problems in school settings. In both studies, subjects were assigned to receive the ACT-group-intervention, or a control intervention featuring individual support from the school health care. The Australian study was a planned comparison, with random allocation for girls, plus one replication of a boys group. The Swedish study used a randomized controlled design. The ACT-intervention was an 8-session manualized group program. The Australian study showed significant reductions in depressive symptoms with a large effect, and significant reductions in psychological inflexibility with a medium effect when compared to the control group who received standard care. In the Swedish study, the ACT-intervention group, when compared to the control group, reported significantly lower levels of stress with a large effect size, and marginally significant decrease of anxiety, and marginally significant increased mindfulness skills. Taken together, the ACT-intervention seems to be a promising intervention for reducing stress and depressive symptoms among young adolescents in school and should be tested in full-sized studies. Limitations of these two pilots include small samples.
The majority of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) patients are not sufficiently physically active post-surgery, yet little support from the Swedish healthcare system is offered. We investigated if a ...dissonance-based group intervention, aiming to increase health-related quality of life after surgery, had any effect on patients' physical activity two years post-RYGB.
Women undergoing RYGB surgery were recruited from five Swedish hospitals and randomized to intervention or control group (standard post-surgery care). The dissonance-based intervention was conducted three months post-RYGB and consisted of four group sessions, each with a specific topic, of which one addressed physical activity. ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers were used to measure physical activity at pre-RYGB, one- and two-years post-surgery.
At pre-RYGB, 259 women were recruited and randomized (intervention n = 156 and control n = 103). Participants had a mean age of 44.7 years (SD 10.3) and pre-RYGB body mass index of 40.8 (SD 4.5) kg/m2. At two-years follow-up, 99 participants (63.5%) in intervention group and 68 (66.0%) in control group had valid accelerometer-measurements. Pre- to post-surgery increases were seen in all physical activity outcomes, but no statistically significant differences between the groups were observed at the two-years follow-up, and intervention effects were poor (d = 0.02-0.35).
To our knowledge, this is the first dissonance-based intervention targeting women undergoing RYGB surgery. At two-years follow-up, we did not observe any differences in physical activity levels between the intervention group and control group. Trial registration number: ISRCTN16417174.
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