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

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.