Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

9-2021

Document Type

DNP Project

Department

Nursing

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Ugochi Irikannu

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Rose Taylor-Lewis

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Lynn McClellan

Abstract

The obesity rate in the U.S. adult population has increased to epidemic levels despite attempts to decrease obesity through evidence-based knowledge, clinical practice guidelines, medical interventions, and individual efforts. For certain individuals, food addiction behaviors such as food cravings, loss of control, and binge eating contribute to obesity and require a different approach to care. Little work has been done on adding the possibility of food addiction to obesity screening and treatment. This study utilized a quasi-experimental quantitative pre- and postsurvey research design based on Lewin’s change theory. Nurse practitioners were surveyed regarding the provider’s perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about obesity both before and after the educational program. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, recruitment via local resources and electronic communications resulted in only five participants during the allotted project timeline. Three out of five participants reported using the concept of food addiction in assessments. An education intervention on food addiction was administered following the initial survey, providing the participants with three evidence-based research articles and the Yale Food Addiction Scale survey and scorecard. Two weeks after the education was provided, the posteducation survey indicated no significant change in perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about obesity. It is recommended that this project be replicated with a larger sample before concluding that education on food addiction and obesity does not change clinical practice.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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