The Effectiveness of an Eating Disorders Prevention Program for Young Women in Saudi Arabia
Eating Disorder Symptom and Body Image Dissatisfaction
About this trial
This is an interventional prevention trial for Eating Disorder Symptom and Body Image Dissatisfaction
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
undergraduate Saudi female
Exclusion Criteria:
undergraduate Saudi female with eating disorders
Sites / Locations
- Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Arm 2
Active Comparator
Sham Comparator
Eating disorders prevention
Healthy eating education
The Body Project. The Body Project is a dissonance-based eating disorders prevention programme. It is a manualised evidence-based programme that targets eating pathology and body image dissatisfaction in young women. The objective of the programme is to create cognitive dissonance to encourage participants to decrease pursuing ideal-thinness. It includes group discussion, written and behavioural exercises and role-play to achieve cognitive dissonance (Stice, Rohde, & Shaw, 2013). It involves four group sessions for an hour each in consecutive weeks. At the beginning of each meeting, the facilitator reinforces voluntary commitment. Homework is explained and given at the end of each meeting and reviewed at the beginning of the following meeting. References: Stice, E., Rohde, P., Shaw, H. (2013). The body project a dissonance-based eating disorders prevention intervention (updated edition). New York: Oxford University Press.
The control group were asked to read educational material in Arabic about healthy nutrition and active lifestyle from the Saudi branch of the World Obesity Federation (Kayl Association for Combatting Obesity, 2021). The material includes information about body mass index; easy ways to measure food units without a scale; benefits of working out; means to adopt healthier daily habits; and healthier food alternatives. The material was chosen because it was designed to be easy to understand by any individual. References: Kayl Association for Combatting Obesity. (2021). Kayl association for combatting obesity. Retrieved from https://www.kayl.org.sa