Recruiting participants to an Internet‐based eating disorder prevention trial: Impact of the recruitment strategy on symptom severity and program utilization
Open accessAbstract
Objective: Using data from a randomized controlled trial, we examined two different strategies to recruit participants for an indicated preventive intervention (StudentBodies‐AN) for women at risk for anorexia nervosa and compared symptom severity and program utilization in participants recruited through each strategy. Method: We recruited participants by announcing the study (a) in lectures at universities and handing out screening questionnaires (face‐to‐face recruitment) and (b) through different media channels, and the participants completed the screening questionnaire on our study website (media‐based recruitment). We compared symptom severity and program utilization between the two groups. Results: A total of 4,646 women (face‐to‐face: 3,741, media‐based: 905) were screened and 168 women (face‐to‐face: 114, media‐based: 54) were randomized to the intervention. We found a statistically and clinically significant association between recruitment strategy and symptom severity: Participants who were recruited through media were more likely to fulfill the inclusion criteria (40.6% vs. 13.3%; p < .001) and endorsed significantly more frequently core behaviors and attitudes of disordered eating (EDE global score: 2.72 vs. 2.17, p < .05; Weight Concerns Scale [WCS] score: 66.05 vs. 56.40, p < .05) at baseline than participants recruited face‐to‐face. Also, participants recruited through media were more likely to log onto the program (χ 2 = 5.06; p = .029) and accessed more of the intervention. Discussion: Recruitment through media seems both more feasible and suitable to reach individuals in need of indicative prevention, and should be part of a multimodal recruitment package. Future studies should be explicitly designed to investigate the impact of recruitment modality on reach and effectiveness including cost‐effectiveness analyses.
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With the exception of the study by Vollert et al. which did not report outcomes, all trials of indicated Internet-based eating disorder prevention programs reported eating disorder risk reduction following the intervention.
“With the exception of the study by Vollert et al. [28] who focussed on the impact of recruitment strategies and did not report outcomes, all trials reported eating disorder risk reduction following the intervention [25–27, 29].”
All studies of indicated Internet-based eating disorder prevention programs recruited only young females and mainly university students, with only two recruiting a very small percentage of members of the community, thus limiting the external validity of findings.
“However, all studies recruited only young females and mainly university students, with only two recruiting a very small percentage of members of the community [25, 28], thus limiting the external validity of findings.”
Studies of other programs (Healthy Body Image, Student Bodies) found that higher adherence was associated with higher perceived need for help and higher eating pathology, respectively.
“studies of other programs, such as the Healthy Body Image program [61] and Student Bodies [28], which found that higher adherence was associated with higher perceived need for help and higher eating pathology, respectively”
Based on the current and previous research, it is likely that indicated Internet-based intervention outcome studies require large numbers of potential participants to be screened to achieve samples that meet certain eligibility criteria (i.e., 1500-4500 participants).
“Nevertheless, based on the current and previous research, it is likely that indicated Internet-based intervention outcome studies require large numbers of potential participants to be screened to achieve samples that meet certain eligibility criteria (i.e., 1500–4500 participants) [25, 28, 29].”
Adherence to more structured interventions is not invariably superior.
“in the four indicated trials of StudentBodies, participants completed between 12 and 68% of required monitoring assessments [25–28], suggesting that adherence to more structured interventions are not invariably superior”
Other trials of online programs employed either face-to-face or telephone diagnostic interviews or an online validated structured self-report measure to exclude participants with an eating disorder.
“Other trials of online programs employed either face-to-face or telephone diagnostic interviews [25, 28] or an online validated structured self-report measure [29] to exclude participants with an eating disorder.”
Young adults at risk for eating disorders are a difficult to reach and engage population.
“our findings demonstrate that young adults at risk for eating disorders are a difficult to reach and engage population [28, 59]”
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- Authors
- Vollert, B., von Bloh, P., Eiterich, N., Beintner, I., Hütter, K., Taylor, C. B., & Jacobi, C.
- Affiliations
- Technische Universität Dresden (DE)
- Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy Technische Universität Dresden Dresden Germany
- Palo Alto University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Vollert, Bianka
- Venue
- International Journal of Eating Disorders
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2020-02-29
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 746-754
- ISSN
- 0276-3478 (ISSN-L)
- 1098-108X
- OpenAlex
- W3007606476
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 0.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Eating Disorders (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
- Keywords
- participant recruitment, eating disorder prevention, anorexia nervosa, online intervention, disordered eating symptoms, weight concern, program utilization, women at risk
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Feeding and Eating Disorders, Body Weight, Female, Humans, Surveys and Questionnaires, Research Design, Patient Selection, Internet, Young Adult
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