An exploration using system dynamics modelling of population-level mindfulness, mindful eating and healthy weight following intervention

Background: Mindful eating has been introduced as a strategy to help prevent overweight and obesity.

Aim: The purpose of this research was to develop a simple system dynamics model to investigate the impact of different interventions on population level mindfulness, mindful eating and healthy weight over a 10-year period.

Methods: A model was constructed and outcomes analysed following the addition of four mindful eating interventions, including decreasing busyness (formal and informal work), promotion of mindful eating (e.g. classes and media), promotion of mindfulness, reduction of external eating cues (decreased portion sizes and variety) or a combination of all interventions.

Results: The model projected that if the current situation was to continue over the next 10-year period, there would be a small decrease of 0.6% in the healthy-weight population despite a 42% increase in people practising mindfulness and 40% increase in people eating mindfully. Of the four interventions introduced, decreasing busyness had the greatest impact on the number of people practising mindfulness, eating mindfully and of a healthy weight. However, when all four interventions were introduced together this resulted in the greatest (19%) increase in the proportion of healthy-weight people.

Conclusions: The study suggests that mindful eating can be improved through intervention, however, the interventions will not greatly contribute to improving the healthy-weight population unless implemented in combination.