Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Katherine Livingstone, Dr Carlos Celis Morales, Eileen Gibney, Professor Lorraine Brennan, Professor John Mathers
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Cambridge University Press, 2017.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Copyright © The Authors 2016 Objective: To characterise participants who dropped out of the Food4Me Proof-of-Principle study. Design: The Food4Me study was an Internet-based, 6-month, four-arm, randomised controlled trial. The control group received generalised dietary and lifestyle recommendations, whereas participants randomised to three different levels of personalised nutrition (PN) received advice based on dietary, phenotypic and/or genotypic data, respectively (with either more or less frequent feedback). Setting: Seven recruitment sites: UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Poland and Greece. Subjects: Adults aged 18–79 years (n 1607). Results: A total of 337 (21 %) participants dropped out during the intervention. At baseline, dropouts had higher BMI (0·5 kg/m2; P<0·001). Attrition did not differ significantly between individuals receiving generalised dietary guidelines (Control) and those randomised to PN. Participants were more likely to drop out (OR; 95 % CI) if they received more frequent feedback (1·81; 1·36, 2·41; P<0·001), were female (1·38; 1·06, 1·78; P=0·015), less than 45 years old (2·57; 1·95, 3·39; P<0·001) and obese (2·25; 1·47, 3·43; P<0·001). Attrition was more likely in participants who reported an interest in losing weight (1·53; 1·19, 1·97; P<0·001) or skipping meals (1·75; 1·16, 2·65; P=0·008), and less likely if participants claimed to eat healthily frequently (0·62; 0·45, 0·86; P=0·003). Conclusions: Attrition did not differ between participants receiving generalised or PN advice but more frequent feedback was related to attrition for those randomised to PN interventions. Better strategies are required to minimise dropouts among younger and obese individuals participating in PN interventions and more frequent feedback may be an unnecessary burden.
Author(s): Livingstone KM, Celis-Morales C, Macready AL, Fallaize R, Forster H, Woolhead C, O'Donovan CB, Marsaux CF, Navas-Carretero S, San-Cristobal R, Kolossa S, Tsirigoti L, Lambrinou CP, Moschonis G, Surwillo A, Drevon CA, Manios Y, Traczyk I, Gibney ER, Brennan L, Walsh MC, Lovegrove JA, Martinez JA, Saris WH, Daniel H, Gibney M, Mathers JC
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Public Health Nutrition
Year: 2017
Volume: 20
Issue: 1
Pages: 53-63
Print publication date: 01/01/2017
Online publication date: 05/08/2016
Acceptance date: 28/06/2016
Date deposited: 03/07/2018
ISSN (print): 1368-9800
ISSN (electronic): 1475-2727
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980016002020
DOI: 10.1017/S1368980016002020
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
