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One section of the CD-ROM
program allows users to click on different body parts to
see all of the medical complications that come from eating
disorders.
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Computer
Program Curbs Eating Disorders
By Jeff Neu
According to health experts, eating disorders
occur frequently among college women today. Recent studies show
that only a small percentage of these women — 1 to 3 percent
— have diagnosable eating disorders, although an estimated
10 to 30 percent appear to be at risk to develop a disorder during
their college years. A renowned eating disorder expert at the
University of Missouri-Columbia has teamed with Inflexxion,
Inc. and Northeastern
University to create a program that significantly curtails
these disorders.
The team developed a new interactive, two-hour CD-ROM program
specifically designed for college women. The program has proven
to significantly increase knowledge about healthy eating and reduce
the shape and weight concerns of these women.
“Food, Mood and Attitude (FMA),
was designed to address psychological issues, self-esteem, nutritional
and dieting concerns, exercise, family issues, cultural pressures
pertaining to body image, and social stress associated with peer
and intimates,” said Laurie Mintz, associate professor of
counseling
psychology at MU, one of the lead researchers in the study
to determine the efficacy of FMA. “To our knowledge, this
is the first study to successfully combine both universal and
selective prevention in a single program.”
The study involved 240 first-year college women, with an equal
number of those women classified, via pre-assessment tests, as
either “at risk” or “not at risk” to develop
an eating disorder. After being assigned to the intervention or
control group, the intervention participants used the FMA program
for two hours while the control group viewed two videos during
the same time. They all completed a post-intervention assessment
test immediately after the experiment and then three months later.
The researchers found that the FMA group reported decreases in
shape and weight concerns and a lower frequency of overeating,
excessive exercise and purging behaviors at the follow-up than
the control group. FMA was particularly effective for those women
who were identified as “at risk” at the beginning
of the study.
“Interactive multimedia programs
are engaging, convenient and provide personalized experiences,
all of which make learning and change more likely to happen,”
said Sarah Lord, director of college health programs at Inflexxion,
Inc., a Newton, Mass.-based company that specializes in developing
multimedia healthcare solutions.
“FMA is likely to have a wide applicability on university
campuses in the efforts to stem the tide of increasing numbers
of eating disorders in the college population,” said Mintz,
who has submitted her findings to Health
Psychology.
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Published by the Mizzou Alumni Association
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Last Update:
March 12, 2007
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