Abstract
Message content may have unanticipated and harmful effects on population subgroups. This study assessed the impact of a weight-centric health message on body shame in college women by eating disorder status and college major (health versus non-health). Three hundred female university students (age = 20.1 ± 1.9, BMI = 23.4 ± 3.9 kg/m2, 78% White) were randomized to a 5-minute video communicating either a weight-centric health message or an intuitive eating message, then completed questionnaires to assess eating disorder risk and body shame. An ANOVA indicated a significant interaction between eating disorder risk and message type on body shame (F[1, 281] = 3.887, p = 0.05, partial eta2=0.014). There was a significant main effect for eating disorder risk status (F[1, 281] = 106.314, p < 0.001, partial eta2=0.276). Among those with high eating disorder risk (35.6%), those who viewed the weight-centric health video had higher body shame compared to those who viewed the intuitive eating video (F[1, 281] = 4.708, p = 0.03, partial eta2=0.017). The interaction between major (health vs non-health) and message group was not significant. Future research should investigate whether modifying weight-centric messages to include intuitive eating principles may better promote physical and mental health for vulnerable subgroups like college-aged women.