Background

Brief behavioral group interventions for binge eating disorder (BED) have been shown to be effective among preoperative bariatric surgery patients. Previous studies have investigated telephone-based interventions for BED, but not virtual modalities. Our objective was to evaluate the benefit of a virtual intervention and compare its effectiveness to in-person treatment.

Methods

Patients in the group intervention met subclinical or full criteria for binge, night, or graze eating; the Binge Eating Scale (BES) was administered at psychological consultation and after 4 group sessions. Using a naturalistic pre-post design, participants completing in-person intervention in 2019 were compared to participants completing virtual intervention in 2021.

Results

In-person and virtual groups were equivalent (age M = 47.24, SD = 12.62 and M = 45.11, SD = 13.08; gender = 80% and 85% female; race = 66.7% and 74.1% white, p's>.05). BES scores (M = 18.59, SD = 9.12 and M = 18.96, SD = 7.65) were also equivalent. Across groups, participants reported significant reductions in BES scores [pre M = 18.99, SD = 8.12; post M = 12.82, SD = 8.10; t(96) = 7.12, p < .001] and post-treatment scores fell within normal clinical cut-offs. Moreover, BES change scores were not significantly different between the treatments [in-person M = 5.25, SD = 9.09; virtual M = 6.92, SD = 7.99; t(86.42) = -0.95, p = 0.34].

Conclusions

A virtual behavioral group intervention can significantly reduce BED behaviors and attitudes among patients presenting for bariatric surgery and was equivalent to in-person treatment.