Assessing the Feasibility, Acceptability, Preliminary Efficacy, and Anticipated Clinical Practice Implementation of a Mindful Eating Smartphone Application: A Mixed Methods Analysis Among Undergraduate Women with Binge Eating and Clinical Experts.

1 online resource (213 pages) : PDF

2020

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Mental health applications (mHealth apps) are developed to bolster the utility and convenience of smartphones to stimulate behavior change, although many mHealth apps lack strong empirical support. Undergraduate women are daily app users and a high risk group for binge eating (BE). The app "Am I Hungry?" Mindful Eating Virtual Coach was developed from Dr. Michelle May’s mindful eating (ME) self-help program and companion book Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat for Binge Eating. The app is designed to treat BE using ME decision making strategies but has not been empirically evaluated. The present study assessed early stage facets using a mixed methods approach among undergraduate women who binge eat and clinical experts in the field of disordered eating and nutrition. Preliminary results show that users experienced significant decreases in BE, increases in intuitive eating, and to a small degree, increases in ME. The intervention demonstrated good feasibility with a 92% retention rate. Participants used the app for an average of 23.8 ± 5.7 days over the course of 4 weeks. Qualitative findings contribute to understanding users’ motivation to engage in ME app-based treatment, how the app can foster behavioral change related to BE, barriers to students’ app use, and opinions of clinical experts regarding practice implementation. Suggested improvements from both user and provider perspectives extend our knowledge of the strengths and limitations of apps and how these technologies can provide a complementary, educational component to clinical practice.

doctoral dissertations

Women's studies
Psychology

Ph.D.

Binge Eating
College Students
Mental Health Apps
Mindful Eating

Health Psychology

Webb, Jennifer

Basinger, Erin
Quinlan, Margaret
Montanaro, Erika

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2020.

This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). For additional information, see http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/.

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Jafari_uncc_0694D_12585

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:2432