Can combined goal prioritization and implementation intentions promote adherence to the Mediterranean Diet? A randomized controlled trial.
Miriam Capasso, Raffaele Pasquariello, Rosa Fabbricatore et al.
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In 30 seconds
This longitudinal randomized controlled trial tested whether combining goal prioritization with implementation intentions could improve Mediterranean Diet (MD) adherence among 410 adults (mean age 46.1 years). Participants in the intervention selected two MD behaviors to prioritize and made plans; an active control group provided comparison. The intervention produced a small increase in self-reported goal priority that was not sustained at follow-up, and did not significantly improve adherence across MD components relative to control. Exploratory analyses found a small increase in adherence to self-selected prioritized behaviors, but this pattern was observational and the difference between trajectories was significant only at the 0.10 alpha level.
Key findings
- The intervention had no significant effect on adherence across MD components compared with the active control.
- Self-reported goal priority increased slightly after intervention, but the increase was not maintained at follow-up.
- Exploratory analyses showed a small change in adherence to prioritized behaviors; the trajectory difference was significant only at the alpha level of 0.10.
Why it matters
The findings highlight the difficulty of changing a dietary pattern that involves multiple behaviors at once. Although participants could select priorities, this strategy alone did not improve overall MD adherence relative to control. The exploratory pattern may help inform future tests of how targeted behavior change can be combined with support for maintaining other dietary behaviors.
What to keep in mind
Adherence was self-reported. The exploratory comparison involved self-selected behaviors and was observational; its trajectory difference met only the 0.10 alpha level.