TY  - JOUR
AU  - Stewart, Cristina
AU  - Piernas, Carmen
AU  - Frie, Kerstin
AU  - Cook, Brian
AU  - Jebb, Susan A
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/12/12
TI  - Evaluation of OPTIMISE (Online Programme to Tackle Individual’s Meat Intake Through Self-regulation): Cohort Study
JO  - J Med Internet Res
SP  - e37389
VL  - 24
IS  - 12
KW  - self-regulation
KW  - self-monitoring
KW  - goal setting
KW  - meat intake
KW  - meat reduction
KW  - multi-component intervention
KW  - health
KW  - nutrition
KW  - diet
AB  - Background: There is an urgent need to reduce society’s meat consumption to help mitigate climate change and reduce noncommunicable diseases. Objective: This study aimed to investigate changes in meat intake after participation in an online, multicomponent, self-regulation intervention. Methods: We conducted a pre-post observational study among adult meat eaters in the United Kingdom who signed up to a website offering support based on self-regulation theory to reduce meat consumption. The program lasted 9 weeks (including a 1-week baseline phase, a 4-week active intervention phase, and a 4-week maintenance phase), comprising self-monitoring, goal setting, action planning, and health and environmental feedback. Meat intake was estimated during weeks 1, 5, and 9 using a 7-day meat frequency questionnaire. We analyzed the change in mean daily meat intake from baseline to week 5 and week 9 among those reporting data using a hierarchical linear mixed model. We assessed changes in attitudes toward meat consumption by questionnaire and considered the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention. Results: The baseline cohort consisted of 289 participants, of whom 77 were analyzed at week 5 (26.6% of the baseline sample) and 55 at week 9 (71.4% of the week 5 sample). We observed large reductions in meat intake at 5 and 9 weeks: –57 (95% CI –70 to –43) g/day (P<.001) and –49 (95% CI –64 to –34) g/day (P<.001), respectively. Participants’ meat-free self-efficacy increased, meat-eating identities moved toward reduced-meat and non–meat-eating identities, and perceptions of meat consumption as the social norm reduced. Participants who completed the study reported high engagement and satisfaction with the intervention. Conclusions: Among people motivated to engage, this online self-regulation program may lead to large reductions in meat intake for more than 2 months, with promising signs of a change in meat-eating identity toward more plant-based diets. This digital behavior change intervention could be offered to complement population-level interventions to support reduction of meat consumption. 
SN  - 1438-8871
UR  - https://www.jmir.org/2022/12/e37389
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/37389
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36508245
DO  - 10.2196/37389
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/37389
ER  -