Effect of a modified motivational interviewing intervention on university students' psychological, cognitive, and nutritional health: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND

Motivational interviewing is a set of interviewing techniques that are employed to promote behavioral change. However, motivational interviewing is a costly intervention that requires training, and its effectiveness relies greatly on the skills and training of specialists. To overcome these limitations, this study developed and implemented a modified version of motivational interviewing.

AIM

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of a modified motivational interviewing (MMI) intervention on university students' psychological, cognitive, and nutritional health indicators.

METHODS

This randomized controlled trial study was conducted using an experimental, repeated-measures, two-group design. The authors developed a modified version of motivational interviewing, and its effect was investigated among university students. The final sample size in this study was 94 university students (intervention = 48 and control = 46). Psychological, cognitive, and nutritional health indicators were measured at baseline and 1 month postrandomization and 3 months postrandomization. Repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

The results of the multivariate analysis revealed a significant effect of the MMI intervention on the linear combination of the dependent variables: Pillai's trace = 0.28, F (9, 84) = 3.59, p = .001. The univariate analysis showed that the effect of the MMI intervention was significant on four dependent variables (namely, uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, perceived stress, and mindfulness).

CONCLUSION

The MMI intervention improved university students' perceived stress, uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, and mindfulness. Further research should be conducted to validate the results reported in this article.

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