Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Aug 21, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 22, 2018 - Sep 5, 2018
Date Accepted: Dec 10, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Development and protocol for a brief online nutrition intervention for young adult university students using the PRECEDE-PROCEED model
ABSTRACT
Background:
Young adults are a priority population for nutrition intervention due to the high prevalence of unhealthy eating behaviours, high risk of weight gain, and the importance of this life-stage for developing lifelong eating behaviours. Innovative intervention strategies are needed to reach and engage young adults, while more detailed reporting of intervention development and testing would progress this challenging research area.
Objective:
This paper describes the development of the EATS (Eating Advice To Students) intervention, a targeted brief online nutrition intervention for young adult (17-35 years) university students, and describes the pilot RCT to assess intervention feasibility.
Methods:
EATS was developed using the PRECEDE-PROCEED model. Development involved a cross-sectional survey of university students eating behaviours and determinants, a systematic review of brief nutrition interventions, and consultation with a project steering committee. A 3-month pilot RCT with 126 students from the University of Newcastle, Australia, will be conducted in February-June 2018. Students will be randomised to EATS or a brief online alcohol intervention (attention control). Process evaluation will include intervention acceptability (online survey) and objective usage data. Efficacy data (online survey), will include diet quality, consumption of target food groups (e.g. fruit, vegetables), alcohol intake, self-efficacy to perform target eating behaviours and well-being.
Results:
Collection of 3-month follow up data was completed in July 2018.
Conclusions:
EATS presents an innovative solution to many of the difficulties faced in targeting young adults to improve their eating behaviours. Given the strong methodological approach undertaken, this work provides significant contribution to advance this research area. Clinical Trial: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12618000118202p).
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.