Exploring the Effects of Social Media Use and Environmental Factors

Whatsapp, Article, No Phone Clinical Trial

Official title:

External Eating: An Investigation of Social Media and Environmental Factors Influencing Eating Behaviours

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03247621
• Other study ID #: A-15-170
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• First received: August 9, 2017
• Last updated: August 9, 2017
• Start date: July 2015
• Est. completion date: July 2018

Study information

• Verified date: August 2017
• Source: Yale-NUS College
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

In this protocol, the investigators propose a randomised controlled trail to explore the effects of environmental factors and the use of technology on eating behaviours. The investigators have planned two studies to investigate these effects, one on high school students from Raffles Institution, and the other on the university population in the National University of Singapore.

Description:

Participants will be told a cover story that the study explores technological distraction on taste, and asked to complete a taste-evaluation taste of common snacks. One group (intervention group) will be asked to use their personal smartphones to engage in their pre-existing Whatsapp chats while doing the taste test. For the two control conditions, one group will be tasked with reading a neutral article on their personal smartphones while they complete the taste test, while the other group will be asked to complete the taste test without any use of smartphones.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 180
• Est. completion date: July 2018
• Est. primary completion date: July 2018
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 13 Years to 26 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Normal weight: Body mass index of 18 to 25

• Have at least occasional breakfast meals (= 3 times a week of self-reported consumption of a breakfast meal)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Symptoms / history of any medical or psychiatric conditions

• Allergies to food products

• History of eating disorders

• Excessive exercise (= 5 times a week of self-reported exercise)

• Currently on a special diet or deliberating restricting caloric intake

• Currently on a weight loss program

• Smoking or substance abuse

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Whatsapp, Article, No Phone

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Whatsapp

• Article

• No Phone

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Singapore	Yale-NUS College	Singapore

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Yale-NUS College	Raffles Institution

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Singapore, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Amount of food consumed	Number of grams of cereal eaten	20 minutes
Secondary	Hunger ratings	Self-reported hunger ratings before and after the taste test	10 minutes
Secondary	Taste ratings	Self-report on how much they enjoyed the two food products during the taste test	20 minutes