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Annals of Behavioral Medicine
Published in: Annals of Behavioral Medicine 3/2015

01-06-2015 | Original Article

Randomized Test of an Implementation Intention-Based Tool to Reduce Stress-Induced Eating

Authors: Daryl B. O’Connor, PhD, Christopher J. Armitage, PhD, Eamonn Ferguson, PhD

Published in: Annals of Behavioral Medicine | Issue 3/2015

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Abstract

Background

Stress may indirectly contribute to disease (e.g. cardiovascular disease, cancer) by producing deleterious changes to diet.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a stress management support (SMS) tool to reduce stress-related unhealthy snacking and to promote stress-related healthy snacking.

Methods

Participants were randomized to complete a SMS tool with instruction to link stressful situations with healthy snack alternatives (experimental) or a SMS tool without a linking instruction (control). On-line daily reports of stressors and snacking were completed for 7 days.

Results

Daily stressors were associated with unhealthy snack consumption in the control condition but not in the experimental condition. Participants highly motivated towards healthy eating consumed a greater number of healthy snacks in the experimental condition on stressful days compared to participants in the experimental condition with low and mean levels of motivation.

Conclusions

This tool is an effective, theory driven, intervention that helps to protect against stress-induced high-calorie snack consumption.
Footnotes
1
Research to date suggests that the means by which implementation intentions are formed are less important than the if-then formulation. For example, Armitage (2009) showed that although implementation intentions were effective in reducing alcohol consumption, there was no difference between implementation intentions formed by participants with no support versus participants who recited implementation intentions that had been provided by researchers. Similarly, Armitage and Arden [23] found that implementation intentions formed using a volitional help sheet (i.e. drawing lines between critical situations and appropriate responses) were equally as effective at reducing alcohol consumption as were self-generated implementation intentions.
 
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Metadata
Title
Randomized Test of an Implementation Intention-Based Tool to Reduce Stress-Induced Eating
Authors
Daryl B. O’Connor, PhD
Christopher J. Armitage, PhD
Eamonn Ferguson, PhD
Publication date
01-06-2015
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Annals of Behavioral Medicine / Issue 3/2015
Print ISSN: 0883-6612
Electronic ISSN: 1532-4796
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-014-9668-x

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