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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2022 Dec;27(8):3367-3377.
doi: 10.1007/s40519-022-01466-8. Epub 2022 Aug 25.

Perceived influence of wearable fitness trackers on eating disorder symptoms in a clinical transdiagnostic binge eating and restrictive eating sample

Olivia Wons  1   2 , Elizabeth Lampe  3   4 , Anna Gabrielle Patarinski  4 , Katherine Schaumberg  5 , Meghan Butryn  3   4 , Adrienne Juarascio  3   4
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Perceived influence of wearable fitness trackers on eating disorder symptoms in a clinical transdiagnostic binge eating and restrictive eating sample

Olivia Wons et al. Eat Weight Disord. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Wearable fitness trackers are an increasingly popular tool for measuring physical activity (PA) due their accuracy and momentary data collection abilities. Despite the benefits of using wearable fitness trackers, there is limited research in the eating disorder (ED) field using wearable fitness trackers to measure PA in the context of EDs. Wearable fitness trackers are often underused in ED research because there is limited knowledge about whether wearable fitness trackers negatively or positively impact PA engagement and ED symptoms in individuals with EDs. The current study aimed to assess the perceived impact wearable fitness trackers have on PA engagement and ED symptoms over a 12-week CBT treatment for 30 individuals with binge eating and restrictive eating that presented to treatment engaging or not engaging in maladaptive exercise. Participants in the maladaptive exercise group (n = 17) and non-maladaptive exercise group (n = 13) wore a fitness tracker for 12 weeks and completed questionnaires assessing participants' perceptions of the fitness trackers' influence on ED symptoms and PA engagement throughout treatment. Results demonstrated a small percentage of individuals perceived the fitness tracker influenced ED behaviors or PA engagement, and there were mixed results on whether participants positively or negatively perceived the fitness tracker influenced them to engage in ED behaviors or PA engagement. Although preliminary, these results demonstrate the need to continue using objective measurements of PA via wearable fitness trackers to further our understanding of the positive and negative effects of fitness trackers on clinical ED samples.Level of Evidence: Level 1, randomized controlled trial.

Keywords: Adaptive exercise; Eating disorders; Maladaptive exercise; Wearable fitness trackers.

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Conflict of interest statement

Olivia Wons, Elizabeth Lampe, Anna Gabrielle Patarinski, Katherine Schaumberg, Meghan Butryn, and Adrienne Juarascio declare that they have no conflict of interest.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This manuscript has not been previously published, and is not presently under consideration by another journal, and will not be submitted to another journal before a final editorial decision from Eating and Weight Disorders is rendered. The questionnaire and methodology for this study were approved by the Drexel University Institutional Review Board. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The percentage of individuals in the maladaptive and non-maladaptive exercise groups that reported they perceived the fitness tracker motivated them to engage in physical activity over the course of treatment
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The percentage of individuals in the maladaptive exercise group that reported the fitness tracker motivated them to engage in compensatory exercise and/or driven exercise over the course of treatment
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The percentage of individuals in the maladaptive and non-maladaptive exercise groups that reported they perceived the fitness tracker influenced them to binge eat over the course of treatment
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The percentage of individuals in the maladaptive and non-maladaptive exercise groups that reported they perceived the fitness tracker influenced them to restrict their eating or not restrict their eating over the course of treatment
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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