Impact of a Program to Improve Nutrition, Body Image, and Health-Related Behaviors for Women in Treatment for Substance Use.

OBJECTIVE

To assess whether a nutrition and body image program improved healthy food consumption, physical activity, eating pathology, and psychosocial factors for women in recovery from substance use.

DESIGN

Secondary data, pretest-posttest.

SETTING

In-person intervention conducted in 6 substance use recovery centers.

PARTICIPANTS

Six hundred and seven adult women.

INTERVENTION: Ten-week, 90-minute weekly intervention led by trained instructors.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-report demographics, drug-use history, general nutrition and health behaviors, thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, eating pathology, binge eating, and intuitive eating. Researchers collected anthropometric/physiological measures.

ANALYSIS: Paired t tests using Cohen's d tested the differences between pretest and posttest total scores on all outcome measures; univariate analysis of variance tests were used for pretest participant comparison.

RESULTS

Participants demonstrated statistically significant (P < 0.05) improvements in general nutrition, physical activity, thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, eating pathology, binge eating, and intuitive eating behaviors compared with pretest, with effect sizes ranging from small to large (d = 0.11-0.83). Participants also reported decreases in weight-related concerns.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Healthy eating and physical activity significantly increased, whereas thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, and disordered eating symptoms significantly decreased. Results support this program to augment existing substance use treatment to address nutrition, physical activity, body image, eating pathology, and weight-related issues in women.