The effects of isolated game elements on adherence rates in food response inhibition traininguse asterix (*) to get italics

Alexander MacLellan, Charlotte R. Pennington, Natalia Lawrence, Samuel J. Westwood, Andrew Jones, Anna Slegrova, Beatrice Sung, Louise Parker, Luke Relph, Jessica O. Miranda, Maryam Shakeel, Elizabeth Mouka, Charlotte Lovejoy, Chaebin Chung, Sabela Lash, Yusra Suhail, Mehr Nag Katherine S. ButtonPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"

2024

<p>Introduction: Poor diet and the consumption of foods high in fat, sugar and salt are common causes of numerous health conditions and premature mortality. Computerised food response inhibition training (food-RIT) is a type of intervention found to aid weight loss and reduce snacking of these foods with the inhibition of motor responses proposed to operate through the process of stimulus devaluation. However, these interventions are repetitive by nature and suffer from a lack of adherence, leading some to propose gamification as a solution to increase engagement. The effect of gamification is unclear, however, with a lack of research investigating the effects of single game elements in improving adherence to interventions. The current study aims to investigate whether isolated common game elements (social or feedback) improve adherence, engagement and effectiveness of computerised food response inhibition training compared to standard non-gamified intervention. Methods: A sample of 252 participants (169 female) were randomly assigned to either a standard non-gamified food response inhibition training, a training gamified with feedback elements, or a training gamified with social elements. Participants completed measures of snacking frequency and food evaluation before and after a 14-day training period, during which they were instructed to complete their assigned training. Training adherence and daily training motivation was recorded during this training period. Results: There were no significant effects of adding either feedback or social gamification elements on training adherence, motivation, or effectiveness. Conclusions: This study finds no meaningful support for adding isolated game elements to food-RIT with a view to improving intervention adherence. These results raise questions about the magnitude of simple gamification effects, and future research may benefit from assessing the combined effects of multiple gamification elements in such cognitive interventions.</p>

Cognitive Training, Eating Behaviour, mHealth, Behaviour Change, Obesity

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Social sciences

Miguel Vadillo suggested: Dear editors, thanks for counting on me for reviewing this version of the ms. I am more than happy to contribute to PCI-RR but due to childcare responsibilities during July I am afraid I won't be able to complete my review in 2 weeks (note that I have been asked to review 2 other manuscripts for PCI-RR during this month). I'll try to have my review ready by the end of July. Thanks for your patience. Best wishes, Miguel

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2024-06-28 23:29:31

Mateo Leganes-Fonteneau