Prevail Trial - People regulating themselves to achieve weight loss
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A proof of concept trial of a self-regulation intervention for weight loss
IRAS ID
247681
Contact name
Kerstin Frie
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford / Clinical Trials and Research Governance
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, days
Research summary
This study tests a newly developed weight loss intervention that aims to make daily self-weighing a more effective tool for weight loss. The intervention guides participants through a self-regulation process after self-weighing: Participants will be asked to track their weight measurements using a weight loss tracker. They will receive daily questionnaires asking them to plan a weight loss action for each day. On a weekly basis they will be asked to reflect on how their behaviours might explain their weight change and to evaluate the weight loss actions they used throughout the week. In order to find out whether the intervention is more helpful than simple daily weighing, we will be using a treatment and a control group. In the treatment group participants will receive the new intervention, in the control group they will be asked to simply weigh themselves daily. One hundred participants will be recruited through GP referral and will be randomly allocated to the treatment and the control group. They will attend two meetings with the research team, one at baseline and one at follow-up. At the baseline meeting participants will get their weight, height and body composition measured. They will also complete a questionnaire asking for their demographic background and previous experiences of weighing themselves. They will then follow the assigned intervention for eight weeks. After completing the intervention, participants in the treatment group will receive a questionnaire via email asking about their opinions on the intervention components. At the follow-up meeting participants' weight and body composition will be measured again. The change in weight and body composition will be compared across the control and treatment group to see whether the treatment group lost more weight. Some participants in the intervention group will be interviewed about their experiences in the study.
REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/SC/0482
Date of REC Opinion
20 Nov 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion