Impact of Self-Help Psychoeducational Intervention on Management of Emotional Eating Among Obese Individuals: A Randomized Controlled Trial

With a high prevalence of emotional eating affecting young adults in Pakistan, leading to obesity and other health problems there is urgent need of addressing this issue to prevent severe mental, physical, and social health impairments; and potential benefit of psycho-educational intervention, the current research was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a psychoeducational program on overweight/ obese young adults by targeting emotional eating, psychological distress, social support and quality of life, using a two-arm, single-blinded, randomized control trial at Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi from Nov 2023 to Jan 2024. Psycho-educational Weight Reduction Program can widely be used as a method to improve functioning in young adults having extra build weight and also reduce emotional eating. It can be presumed that changes of eating behaviors, emotional functioning and body image may be imperative in weight management program Study included two phases with a sample of 550 students recruited using convenience sampling with cross-section study design in Phase-I & sample screened for high emotional eating (score >75) and Body Mass Index (25-30 Kg/m). 14 eligible students entered Phase II (Intervention) & randomly assigned into the Experimental (self-help psycho-educational weight loss intervention for 12 weeks (2-sessions/ week) and Control groups. Pre and Post-intervention results revealed that the experimental group had significantly lower scores (P<0.001) for Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Emotional Eating Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire & Discouragement subscale, while significantly higher scores were noted for Physical Component Summary(PCS), Mental Component Summary(MCS) and Encouragement subscale, compared to Control Group. Hence, Self-help psychoeducational program for management of emotional eating has significant effects on young adults having obesity in terms of reducing emotional eating, psychological distress and improving social support & life quality.