Portion control for the treatment of obesity in the primary care setting

Background: High-quality research methodologies and clear reporting of studies are essential to facilitate confidence in research findings. The aim of the present study was to conduct an in-depth examination of the methodological quality and reporting of studies included in a recent systematic review of dietitians' effectiveness at providing individualised nutrition care to adult patients. Methods: The methodological quality and reporting of 27 Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) were appraised using the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) Guidelines for complex interventions and the CONSORT checklist for reporting RCTs. A quality appraisal checklist was developed for each guideline/assessment tool aiming to evaluate the extent to which each study met the designated criteria. Excerpts from studies that best addressed criteria were collated to provide exemplary accounts of how criteria may be achieved in future studies. Results: None of the reviewed studies met more than half of the MRC Guidance criteria, indicating that there is clear room for improvement in reporting the methodological underpinnings of these studies. Similarly, no studies met all criteria of the CONSORT checklist, suggesting that there is also room for improvement in the design and reporting of studies in this field. Conclusions: Dietitians, researchers and journal editors are encouraged to use the results and exemplary accounts from this review to identify key aspects of studies that could be improved in future research. Improving future research will enhance the quality of the evidence-base that investigates the outcomes of dietary interventions involving dietitians.

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“…Twenty‐seven RCTs met the eligibility criteria and were included in the review, as shown in Figure .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality of development and reporting of dietetic intervention studies in primary care: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials

Ball

Sladdin

Mitchell

et al. 2017

J Human Nutrition Diet

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“…Whereas some RCTs have suggested that decreasing food portions can lead to weight loss 423 , participants were aware that weight loss was an objective of the study. Since this presumption examines occasions when people are unaware of portions being reduced or of weight loss being an objective, such RCTs are not included as evidence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weighing the Evidence of Common Beliefs in Obesity Research

Casazza

Brown

Astrup

et al. 2014

Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition

155

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Obesity is a topic on which many views are strongly held in the absence of scientific evidence to support those views, and some views are strongly held despite evidence to contradict those views. We refer to the former as “presumptions” and the latter as “myths”. Here we present nine myths and ten presumptions surrounding the effects of rapid weight loss; setting realistic goals in weight loss therapy; stage of change or readiness to lose weight; physical education classes; breast-feeding; daily self-weighing; genetic contribution to obesity; the “Freshman 15”; food deserts; regularly eating (versus skipping) breakfast; eating close to bedtime; eating more fruits and vegetables; weight cycling (i.e. yo-yo dieting); snacking; built environment; reducing screen time in childhood obesity; portion size; participation in family mealtime; and drinking water as a means of weight-loss. For each of these, we describe the belief and present evidence that the belief is widely held or stated, reasons to support the conjecture that the belief might be true, evidence to directly support or refute the belief, and findings from randomized controlled trials, if available. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these determinations, conjecture on why so many myths and presumptions exist, and suggestions for limiting the spread of these and other unsubstantiated beliefs about obesity domain.

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“…Interventions could therefore change consumer habits by adding informational cues to the consumer environment associated with alternative courses of action to the default, The provision of plates and bowls containing consumption information has similarly been shown to be associated with greater weight loss in obese patients compared with plates with no portion size information (Kesman et al 2011;Pedersen, Kang, and Kline 2007). In addition to being effective in modifying food consumption habits, the addition of informational cues can also influence alcohol consumption.…”

Section: Adding Informational Cues To the Situationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Right Here, Right Now: Situated Interventions to Change Consumer Habits

Best¹,

Papies²

2017

Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

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Consumer behavior-change interventions have traditionally encouraged consumers to form conscious intentions but, in the past decade, it has been shown that whilst these interventions have a medium-to-large effect in changing intentions, they have a much smaller effect in changing behavior. Consumers often do not act in accordance with their conscious intentions because situational cues in the immediate environment automatically elicit learned, habitual behaviors. It has therefore been suggested that researchers re-focus their efforts on developing interventions that target unconscious, unintentional influences on behavior, such as cuebehavior ('habit') associations. To develop effective consumer behavior-change interventions, however, we argue that it is first important to understand how consumer experiences are represented in memory, in order to successfully target the situational cues that most strongly predict engagement in habitual behavior. In this article, we present a situated cognition perspective of habits, and discuss how the situated cognition perspective extends our understanding of how consumer experiences are represented in memory, and the processes through which these situational representations can be retrieved in order to elicit habitual consumer behaviors. Based on the principles of situated cognition, we then discuss five ways interventions could change consumer habits by targeting situational cues in the consumer environment, and suggest how existing interventions utilizing these behaviorchange strategies could be improved by integrating the principles of the situated cognition approach.

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Portion control for the treatment of obesity in the primary care setting

Cited by 49 publications

References 13 publications

Quality of development and reporting of dietetic intervention studies in primary care: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials

Quality of development and reporting of dietetic intervention studies in primary care: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials

Weighing the Evidence of Common Beliefs in Obesity Research

Right Here, Right Now: Situated Interventions to Change Consumer Habits

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