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Completed

NCT Number: NCT03882957

Trial on the Effect of Media Multi-tasking on Attention to Food Cues and Cued Overeating

Childhood obesity is a critical public health problem in the United States. One factor known to contribute to childhood obesity is excess consumption. Importantly, excess consumption related to weight gain is not necessarily driven by hunger. For example, environmental food cues stimulate brain reward regions and lead to overeating even after a child has eaten to satiety. This type of cued eating is associated with increased attention to food cues; the amount of time a child spends looking at food cues (e.g., food advertisements) is associated with increased caloric intake. However, individual susceptibility to environmental food cues remains unknown. It is proposed that the prevalent practice of media multi-tasking-simultaneously attending to multiple electronic media sources-increases attention to peripheral food cues in the environment and thereby plays an important role in the development of obesity. It is hypothesized that multi-tasking teaches children to engage in constant task switching that makes them more responsive to peripheral cues, many of which are potentially harmful (such as those that promote overeating). The overarching hypothesis is that media multi-tasking alters the attentional networks of the brain that control attention to environmental cues. High media multi-tasking children are therefore particularly susceptible to food cues, thereby leading to increased cued eating. It is also predicted that attention modification training can provide a protective effect against detrimental attentional processing caused multi-tasking, by increasing the proficiency of the attention networks. These hypotheses will be tested by assessing the pathway between media-multitasking, attention to food cues, and cued eating. It will also be examined whether it is possible to intervene on this pathway by piloting an at-home attention modification training intervention designed to reduce attention to food cues. It is our belief that this research will lead to the development of low-cost, scalable tools that can train attention networks so that children are less influenced by peripheral food cues, a known cause of overeating. For example, having children practice attention modification intervention tasks regularly (which could be accomplished through user-friendly computer games or cell phone/tablet apps) might offset the negative attentional effects of media multi-tasking.

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Key information

Conditions

Attention Concentration Difficulty Body Weight Nutrition Disorders Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases Obesity Obesity, Childhood Overnutrition Overweight Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Pediatric Obesity Signs and Symptoms

Age range

13 year–17 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Dartmouth-Hithchock Medical Center

Lebanon, New Hampshire, 03756, United States

About this study

[3/14/2020]: Study recruitment temporarily halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • N/A.

Exclusion criteria

  • Inadequate English proficiency, a vision disorder that is not corrected with corrective lenses, and relevant food allergies.

Treatment and study plan

Sustained attention

Behavioral

participants will complete a sustained attention task

media multi-task

Behavioral

participants will complete multiple media tasks at the same time

video

Other

participants will watch a video of media tasks being completed

Primary outcomes

  1. Amount of Time Spent Looking at Food Cues While Playing a Media Game

    Time frame: approximately 15 minutes post-intervention

    Eye-tracking will be used to measure the amount of time spent looking at static food cues while participants play a media game on the computer. The amount time spent looking at a food cue is a measure how much attention was given to the food cue. The longer the looking time, the greater amount of attention.

  2. Amount of Snack Foods Consumed Post-intervention

    Time frame: approximately 30 minutes post-intervention

    The amount of kcals consumed of snack foods after participants have completed the intervention.

  3. Daily Usual Media Multi-tasking

    Time frame: approximately 10 minutes prior to the intervention

    Participants reported on their usual media multitasking using the short form media multitasking index. This index asks about media multitasking with other print and digital media during four primary activities: 1) watching television or movies, 2) playing video games, 3) reading books or magazines (not assigned for school), and 4) doing homework. For each activity, participants reported the frequency with which they multitasked by engaging in the other activities by using a 5-point likert scale (i.e., 0=Never, 1=Rarely, 2=Sometimes, 3=Often, 4=Always). A usual media multitasking score was computed by taking the average of the Likert response. The score ranges from 0 to 4 with a higher score indicative of higher self-reported usual media multitasking.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Other

Collaborators

  • Dartmouth College
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Registry information

Official study title

Media Multi-tasking and Cued Overeating: Assessing the Pathway and Piloting an Intervention Using an Attentional Network Framework

Important dates

Study start
2019
Primary completion
2020
Study completion
2020
First posted
Mar 20, 2019
Registry last updated
Jun 14, 2022

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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