Effect of a modified motivational interviewing intervention on university students' psychological, cognitive, and nutritional health: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Motivational interviewing is a set of interviewing techniques that are employed to promote behavioral change. However, motivational interviewing is a costly intervention that requires training, and its effectiveness relies greatly on the skills and training of specialists. To overcome these limitations, this study developed and implemented a modified version of motivational interviewing.

Aim: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of a modified motivational interviewing (MMI) intervention on university students' psychological, cognitive, and nutritional health indicators.

Methods: This randomized controlled trial study was conducted using an experimental, repeated-measures, two-group design. The authors developed a modified version of motivational interviewing, and its effect was investigated among university students. The final sample size in this study was 94 university students (intervention = 48 and control = 46). Psychological, cognitive, and nutritional health indicators were measured at baseline and 1 month postrandomization and 3 months postrandomization. Repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyze the data.

Results: The results of the multivariate analysis revealed a significant effect of the MMI intervention on the linear combination of the dependent variables: Pillai's trace = 0.28, F (9, 84) = 3.59, p = .001. The univariate analysis showed that the effect of the MMI intervention was significant on four dependent variables (namely, uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, perceived stress, and mindfulness).

Conclusion: The MMI intervention improved university students' perceived stress, uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, and mindfulness. Further research should be conducted to validate the results reported in this article.