Young women with type 1 diabetes are at risk to develop eating disorders (ED). We evaluated a novel ED prevention program in a multinational randomized controlled trial.
Women (14–35 years old) with type 1 diabetes were randomized to virtual Diabetes Body Project groups or educational control. Outcomes were assessed at pretest and posttest (1–2 weeks after intervention).
Compared with educational controls (n = 146), participants in the Diabetes Body Project (n = 147) showed significant improvements (all P < 0.05), with small Cohen’s d effect sizes for ED symptoms (d = −0.30, 95% CI −0.06, −0.69) (primary outcome), diabetes distress (d = −0.42), quality of life (d = 0.39) and dietary restraint (d = −0.31), and medium effect sizes for diabetes-specific disordered eating behaviors (d = −0.70), body dissatisfaction (d = −0.59), and pursuit of thin appearance ideal (d = −0.56).
The Diabetes Body Project produced significantly larger acute effects with small to medium effect sizes compared with educational controls and has potential for broad implementation.
Clinical trial reg. no NCT05399446, clinicaltrials.gov
This article contains supplementary material online at https://doi.org/10.2337/figshare.27625659.
