Internet-delivered eating disorder prevention: A randomized controlled trial of dissonance-based and...

The current study evaluated two web-based programs for eating disorder prevention in high-risk, predominantly ethnic minority women.

Two hundred and seventy-one women with elevated weight concerns were randomized to Internet dissonance-based intervention (DBI-I), Internet cognitive-behavioral intervention (CBI-I), or no intervention (NI). Both interventions consisted of four weekly online sessions. Participants were assessed at pre- and post intervention. Outcome measures included eating pathology, body dissatisfaction, dieting, thin-ideal internalization, and depression.

At postintervention, DBI-I and CBI-I led to greater reductions in body dissatisfaction, thin-ideal internalization, and depression than NI. In addition, CBI-I was effective at reducing dieting and composite eating pathology relative to NI. No outcome differences were found between the active conditions. Moderation analyses suggested that both active conditions were more effective for ethnic minorities than Whites relative to NI.

Results suggest that both DBI-I and CBI-I are effective at reducing eating disorder risk factors in a high-risk, predominantly minority population relative to no intervention.