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.

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.