Creating a digital segmentation tool to tailor weight management advice: the Diet Types Survey

TL;DR

This study created a digital tool to classify people into dieting personality types, aiming to improve personalized weight management advice.

Contribution

The study developed and validated a shortened, online survey tool for identifying dieting styles based on psychological traits.

Findings

The survey identified five dieting types: Thinker, Craver, Socializer, Foodie, and Freewheeler.

The tool was widely used, with over 29,000 participants in five days, mostly women aged 30–69 with overweight or obesity.

Cravers were more common among obese individuals and reported more dieting attempts.

Abstract

Tailoring of weight management interventions has tended to focus on demographic characteristics, anthropometric data, health behavior, but seldom on psychological variations or personality traits. The objectives of this study were to (1) shorten and validate an existing dieting style tool; and (2) launch an online tool to assess the uptake and acceptability of segmented feedback.

This study used an existing dieting styles tool consisting of over 100 items about personality traits, self-efficacy, restraint, impulsivity, perfectionism, food involvement, motivation, mindfulness, habits, and habits related to eating and dieting behavior. The number of items was reduced, and a shorter survey was tested in a sample of 1,551 Australians (83.2% female). The revised version with a blurb based on different styles was beta tested (n = 74) and launched as the Diet Types tool on the homepage of an online weight management program.

The structure of the short form survey replicated the original with both Eigenvalue criteria and Monte Carlo analysis, indicating the presence of 5 factors that would become the final types of Thinker, Craver, Socializer, Foodie, and Freewheeler. The correlation between factors ranged from 0.265 to 0.506. Internal consistency was acceptable to excellent. The launch of the final Diet Types tool resulted in 29,394 participants completing the survey in 5 days. The sample was mostly women (81.3%), with 42.9% aged 30–49 years and 36.0% aged 50–69 years. Three-quarters of the sample was categorized as overweight or obese (41.9% obese). One-third of the sample (33.8%, n = 9,935) was classified as having a single dominant type, with an additional 38.5% (n = 11,310) showing two equally dominant options. Thinker was the most common (29.7%), followed by Craver (18.1%). Those classified as Cravers were more highly represented in the obese weight status category and reported the highest number of dieting attempts.

The development of a short segmentation tool with feedback about dieting personality proved to be popular, with high uptake particularly among older females living with obesity within the Australian population. In future, the information collected may help to create and deliver messages that are more relevant and persuasive than generic messages for weight management.

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