Evaluation of the ACT on Health Program

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Overweight and Obesity

In brief

This project will develop and test an online health promotion program that augments diet and physical activity behavior change methods using acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). ACT is an evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy found to be effective in over 200 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in improving a wide range of psychological and behavioral health problems. Recently, several clinical trials have found ACT enhances diet and exercise behavior as well as long term weight management. These studies have focused on testing ACT provided by experts in face-to-face interventions, which limits broad dissemination. Delivering an ACT health promotion program online could potentially provide a low-cost resource to improve health across Utah. The specific aims are to: 1. Develop a canvas-based online course (ACT on Health) that teaches how to improve diet and physical activity as well as ACT-based skills to enhance behavior change efforts. 2. Evaluate ACT on Health relative to a waitlist in a RCT with 60 overweight/obese adults on outcomes including self-reported physical activity, diet, and quality of life. If successful, this project will both provide an ongoing canvas extension course delivered throughout Utah to improve health behaviors. This project seeks to develop and test an online, self-guided ACT program (ACT on Health) to improve diet and physical activity. ACT on Health will include 8 weekly modules teaching effective health behavior change methods coupled with ACT strategies to reduce maladaptive motivators and enhance adaptive motivators for change. The investigators will evaluate the program in a RCT relative to a waitlist condition with 60 overweight/obese adults recruited through Extension in 7 Utah counties. The program will be offered through the USU Extension Canvas platform to ensure, if effective, that the program could continue to be offered across Utah. The two hypotheses for this study are as follows: 1. Participants will report a high degree of satisfaction and will demonstrate adequate engagement in the ACT on Health program. 2. Participants assigned to ACT on Health will improve more on self-reported diet, physical activity, and quality of life relative to the waitlist condition.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT03932994

Run by

Utah State University

People needed

79

Starts

2019-05-28

Expected to finish

2019-12-20

Last updated by the study team

2020-03-24

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Being 18 or older.
• Being a fluent English speaker.
• A self-reported body mass index of 25 or higher.
• Interest participating in an online program to improve eating and physical activity.
• Regular access to the internet.
• Comfort with using the internet and navigating websites.
• Living in Utah or neighboring counties.
• Have not participated in other web/mobile or self-help book studies from the USU CBS lab.

You may not qualify if…

• No other exclusion criteria will be used in order to ensure a representative sample and to maximize participant flow
• We will recommend participants consult their physician if they have a condition that might be affected by changes to diet or exercise.

Where it is running

• Utah State University — Logan, Utah, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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