Eating disorder prevention in the real world

Diedrichs, Phillippa C.

Abstract

The field of eating disorder prevention research has made excellent progress over the past thirty years. It is estimated that more than 100 intervention approaches have been developed, and more than 60 separate prevention interventions have been evaluated in controlled trials (Austin, 2015; Stice, Becker, & Yokum, 2013). Prevention interventions have been shown to reduce eating disorder risk factors, symptoms, and onset (Stice et al., 2013). Despite progress in the development of interventions and understanding of their efficacy in methodologically rigorous research, historically broad scale uptake in real world settings (e.g., schools, community organisations, healthcare services) has been somewhat limited. As a result, the clinical impact and potential benefits of most evidence-based eating disorder prevention interventions are yet to be fully realised outside the ivory towers of science and academia. The delay in advances in scientific knowledge being translated into routine practice in real-world settings is not unique to eating disorder prevention; it is unfortunately common in medical and health research more broadly. For example, it takes an average of 17 years to translate original medical research into routine clinical practice (Brownson, Colditz, & Proctor, 2012). Fortunately, in recent years several eating disorder prevention interventions have been disseminated at scale in partnership with business, community, and government stakeholders. Nevertheless, developing strategies to rapidly translate advances in prevention intervention research into real world practice remains a priority for the eating disorder prevention field today (Austin, 2015). This chapter will provide a review of successful case examples, existing barriers, and future strategies related to the scaling up of evidence-based prevention interventions in the eating disorders field.

• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jan 11, 2017
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 1-6
• Book Title: Encyclopedia of Feeding and Eating Disorders
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-087-2_133-1
• Keywords: body image, eating disorder, prevention, implementation, evidence-based interventions, scaling up, effectiveness, interventions
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/910246
• Publisher URL: http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-287-087-2_133-1
• Contract Date: Jan 11, 2017