Table 1.
Characteristics of studies in the review
| Training program title | Article ID: Author, year, country | Training objective/approach | Trainees | Target population | Evaluation method | Evaluation findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario community outreach program for eating disorders | McVey, 2005 [18] (Canada) | Increase community-based practitioners’ knowledge, involvement and level of comfort to treat clients with EDs; to foster linkages among practitioners in and across regions of the province. Based on an evidence-based model of care | Healthcare practitioners; school boards & public health departments | Adults, adolescents, children | Quantitative; pre-post intervention survey | ↑ knowledge re ED, body issues; ↑ confidence to treat or teach on ED; better practitioner links |
| The student body: promoting health at any size | McVey, 2007 [17] (Canada) | A prevention program for elementary school teachers and public health practitioners. The web-based approach made the program accessible both inside and outside school hours | Elementary teachers; public health professionals | Elementary school children | RCT | ↑ teacher knowledge re dieting & peer influence; high satisfaction w/ online tools & self as role model |
| The Meal Support Training (MST) | Cairns, 2007 [28] (Canada) | Introduces concept of meal support; helps others understand feelings of youth with disordered eating around meals; provides approaches/strategies for meal support | Parents, caregivers, friends of eating-disordered youth | Children with ED | Mixed methodology | + parent ratings on manual & video, especially re patient input. Tools support parental instincts |
| Maudsley eating disorder collaborative care workshops | Sepulveda, 2008 [26] (UK) | Aims to strengthen knowledge and skills of carers, while reducing the burden of caring for their children with ED. Elements of approach: Skill-based instruction; group format; observation of others’ skills; weekly goals | Family members of people with all forms of ED | Children treated for ED at South London & Maudsley Hospital | Quantitative pre-post design + 3 month follow-up | ↓ carer distress and care burden over time; benefits = new skills, exchanging with others |
| Sepulveda, 2008a [23] (UK) | Aims to strengthen knowledge and skills of carers, and reduce the emotional burden of caring for their children with ED. Approach includes theory and instruction; demonstration and practice; telephone-administered skills coaching based on behavior therapy | Family members of ED patients | People with ED | Quantitative and qualitative | Quant results not sig. Qualitative: ↑ understanding of how reactions & interactions w/ patients impact outcomes. | |
| Maudsley eating disorder collaborative care workshops (continued) | Macdonald, 2011 (UK) | Aimed at improving communication and reducing social impact of ED for families by addressing negative QOL, burden of illness, distress and expressed emotion. Evidence-based approach, psycho-education principles and motivational interviewing | Family and carers of people with ED | People with anorexia | Qualitative | Skills transfer &supplementary coaching were highly valued; positive change for coaching group & acceptability of intervention |
| Overcoming Anorexia Online (OAO) | Grover, 2011 [20] (UK) | Aims to provide information, promote self-monitoring and teach skills to identify, understand, and manage Anorexia. Interactive, web-based approach; uses CBT (Williams, 2002, 2009) and systemic framework (Dummett, 2006) | Carers (relatives, partners, friends) of someone with broadly defined anorexia | People with AN, all ages and stages of illness | RCT | Main H: ↓ carer distress after OAO supported (vs. controls). Module on communication was most useful. |
| The care and understanding of people with eating disorders (ENB N46) | Abuel-Ealeh, 2001 [12] (UK) | Aim of program to raise professionals’ knowledge and awareness of EDs; increase confidence and skills for working with ED clients. A university-level course | Mainly nursing students (1 OT; service users) | People with ED (future clients of trainees) | Quantitative descriptive (some open questions) | 81.5 % program completers later worked in ED fields; 77.7 % interested in further training |
| Collaborative care skills training workshops | Pepin & King, 2013 [22] (Australia) | Replication of the Maudsley eating disorder collaborative care workshops in Australia | Family members | People with ED living with family members | Quantitative pre-post design + follow-up | ↑ adaptive coping strategies over time; ↓ over- Involvement (not EE). |
| Goodier, 2014 [19] (Australia) | Adaptation of the new Maudsley method for parent skills training with children and adolescents | Parents of children or adolescents in treatment for ED | Children or adolescents with ED | qualitative | Training helped re: managing illness & family dynamics; broke isolation; peer support | |
| Mental health first aid training course for eating disorders | Hart, 2012 [27] (Australia) | Aims to improve mental health literacy in the social networks of individuals with ED; translates the MHFA protocol, which is an action plan that provides information on various mental illnesses to the public, into a program specifically for EDs | General public | Personal contacts (family, friends, classmates etc.) who may need help for ED | Quantitative; pre-post repeated measures design | ↑ ED knowledge & first aid strate-gies; ↓ stigma (social distance); ↑ confidence to identify & help someone with ED. |
| (No title) | Chally, 1998 [16] (USA) | A prevention program for school personnel aimed at providing training to recognize students at risk for ED, or to identify signs and symptoms in students with whom they interact daily | High school educators and staff | High school students potentially at risk for ED | Quantitative, pre-post test, control group design | ↑ knowledge & ability to identify students at risk; ↑ belief in getting help; ↓ belief that thin = success. |
| The eating disorder curriculum for primary care providers | Gurni & Halmi, 2001 [13] (USA) | Aims at providing a first step in training social workers to serve as eating disorder therapists in primary care clinics | 9 female social workers | minority group members, low-income, at risk for ED | Quantitative (pilot study) | ↑ ED knowledge re assessment & treatment; better diagnostic skills post training. |
| Group Parent Training program (GPT) | Zucker, 2005 [26] (USA) | Assists caregivers in managing the child’s ED, and facilitates a healthy home environment for sustained change. Draws on narrative family therapy and psycho-educational approaches, emotion-focused therapy, mindfulness strategies, dialectical behavior therapy | Parents/carers of patients in the Duke ED Program | Patients in the Duke ED Program | Qualitative (focus groups) | Parent desire for psycho-education materials w/ skills-based approach; ideas re ↑ peer support. |
| Zucker, 2006 [24] (USA) | Overall aim to maximize the effectiveness of parent involvement while minimizing burden in managing EDs; the main approach used dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) adapted to a group parent format. Course content also based on social cognitive, and learning, theories | (No answer) | Adolescent outpatients from the university affiliated medical center | Quantitative descriptive | ↑ management of ED, but also better parents; ED skills transfer to other areas; ↑ stress management | |
| Eating disorders and mental health—the EAT framework | DeBate, 2009 [11] (USA) | Aims to increase the capacity of oral health professionals to deliver ED-specific secondary prevention to patients suspected of disordered eating; uses a framework based on transtheoretical model and brief motivational interviewing | Oral health providers | Dental patients suspected of having an ED | Quantitative pre-post design | ↑ self-efficacy; ↑ knowledge re oral manifestations of ED, treatments, attitudes re: 2nd-ary prevention |
| DeBate, 2012 [10] (USA) | To increase knowledge, skill & self-efficacy among dental and dental hygiene students for dealing with oral manifestations of disordered eating; approach is a theory-based framework based on brief motivational interviewing (B-MI) | Dental and dental hygiene students | Dental patients with signs of disordered eating | Quantitative, group randomized control design | ↑ improvement vs controls re ED knowledge, oral findings, skills-based knowledge, self-efficacy | |
| The parent partner program™ | Haltom, 2012 [21] (USA) | To provide carers with knowledge and skills to support people with ED, but also bring together a community of professionals, carers and advocates around integrated treatment; uses philosophy of mutual support and learning based on research by Bronfenbrenner (Cochran & Henderson, 1986) | Family, friends caring for ED patients | Anyone with ED | Quantitative pre-post test design | ↑ knowledge re ED, treatment; how to provide support, ↑ support re carers & empathy re people w/ ED. |
| Body and self esteem | Rosenvinge, 2003 [15] (Norway) | Increase clinical competence of health providers in ED; encourage interdisciplinary work at local level, and therapists to as ED resources in health care services; approaches: family therapy; CBT); psychodynamic therapy | Local multi-disciplinary health care professionals | Prospective clients of trainees | Quantitative pre-post design + 1 year follow-up | Needed more time to learn clinical skills, management, therapy; ↑ confidence to treat @ follow-up. |
| Pettersen, 2012 [14] (Norway) | Addresses professionals’ needs for clinical competence and better understanding of the benefits of inter-professional collaboration in treating ED; approach is “exchange based” | Doctors, nurses, psychologists & other health care workers | (No answer) | Qualitative | Desire for ↑ ED services & training after program & to work inter-professionally |