Social difficulties in weight disorders
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Social difficulties and threat sensitivity in people with weight disorders: theoretical and clinical implications
IRAS ID
258240
Contact name
Valentina Cardi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Baseline assessment + 6-month follow-up:
Little is known about how social functioning relates to abnormal eating patterns in those with weight disorders. There will be 2 groups each composed of 63 adults; one group of obese adults and one group of healthy weight controls.Participants will be recruited through convenience sampling in the community through flyers, social media advertisements and a departmental participant database. They will also be recruited via flyer and word of mouth at the KCH Obesity Clinic.
Each participant will complete a series of questionnaires and tasks online using secure websites (Inquest, SIM). The tasks will measure cognitive biases to social threat, interpreting ambiguous social scenarios negatively, sensitivity to social rejection and quality of social networks. Questionnaires will measure quality of interpersonal sensitivity, loneliness, social media behaviours, internalized weight bias, psychological distress and eating disorder symptoms. All participants will complete a subset of these measures at 6-month follow-up.
Testing of guided self-help resources:
Guided self-help materials will be offered online for 6-8 weeks to 30 obese participants with psychiatric comorbidities recruited from baseline assessment. This part of the study will happen in-between the baseline and 6-month follow-up assessment points. Participants will give feedback on feasibility, acceptability and how beneficial they found the resources.Development of guided self-help resources:
Resources will be developed with input from obese adults through online focus groups (10 people). Focus groups will discuss social difficulties and where help is needed. A review of the literature around online support groups and mental health issues will assist material development.An online platform (ECHOMANTRA) designed as a self-help guide for patients with Anorexia (Cardi et al., 2017) will then be modified based on these findings. The new materials will retain the peer-to-peer support groups and psychoeducation components of ECHOMANTRA.
REC name
West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/WM/0005
Date of REC Opinion
17 Feb 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion