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Effectiveness of the Fun For Wellness Online Behavioral Intervention to Promote Subjective Well-Being in Adults with Obesity: A Randomized Controlled Trial

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Abstract

Fun For Wellness is a self-efficacy theory-based online behavioral intervention developed to promote growth in well-being and physical activity by providing capability-enhancing opportunities to participants. Evidence has been provided for the efficacy of Fun For Wellness to promote subjective well-being in adults in a relatively controlled setting. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Fun For Wellness to increase subjective well-being in adults with obesity in the United States of America in a relatively uncontrolled setting. The data described in this manuscript were collected within a more broadly focused trial: the Well-Being and Physical Activity Study (ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT03194854, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03194854). The study design was a large-scale, prospective, double-blind, parallel group randomized controlled trial. Participants were recruited through an online panel recruitment company. Data collection occurred at three time points: baseline, 30 days and 60 days after baseline. Participants (N = 667) who were assigned to the Fun For Wellness group (nFFW = 331) were provided with 30 days of 24 h access to the online intervention (i.e., from baseline to 30 days after baseline). Participants assigned to the usual care group (nusual care = 336) were asked to conduct their lives as usual. There was evidence for a positive indirect effect of Fun For Wellness on both occupational and psychological subjective well-being at 60 days after baseline through occupational and psychological well-being self-efficacy at 30 days after baseline, respectively. There was evidence for a positive direct effect of Fun For Wellness on both community (d = 0.33) and physical (d = 0.26) subjective well-being at 60 days after baseline. Results from this study provided some initial evidence for both the effectiveness (e.g., promoting community, occupational, physical, and psychological subjective well-being), and the ineffectiveness (e.g., failing to promote interpersonal, economic, and overall subjective well-being), of the Fun For Wellness intervention for increasing subjective well-being in adults with obesity in the United States of America.

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Funding

Funding for this study was provided by the Erwin and Barbara Mautner Charitable Foundation through the Erwin and Barbara Mautner Endowed Chair in Community Well-Being at the University of Miami. We do not perceive the funding body to exert any role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing manuscripts.

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Correspondence to Nicholas D. Myers.

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Conflicts of interest

Two co-authors, Adam McMahon and Isaac Prilleltensky, are partners in Wellnuts LLC. Wellnuts LLC may commercialize the FFW intervention in the future.

Ethical Approval

All procedures in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The institutional review board at the University of Miami provided necessary permission (IRB# 20170541) to conduct this study on July 11, 2017. The University of Miami and Michigan State University (STUDY00000979) established an Institutional Authorization Agreement on 26 June 2018 that provided permission for the University of Miami to serve as the designated IRB for this study.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from each participant included in the study. More specifically, immediately after being determined to be eligible for this study, each eligible individual was directed to a web-based IRB-approved informed consent form. Each individual who clicked “Consent to Participate” was enrolled as a participant in the study. Each individual who clicked “Decline to Consent” was denied access to the intervention.

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Myers, N.D., Prilleltensky, I., McMahon, A. et al. Effectiveness of the Fun For Wellness Online Behavioral Intervention to Promote Subjective Well-Being in Adults with Obesity: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Happiness Stud 22, 1905–1923 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00301-0

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