Intervention to Enhance Dietary Adherence for Breast Cancer Prevention

Animal studies suggest that restricting eating to a time-limited portion of the day may produce breast cancer prevention benefits resembling those that result from more challenging dietary regimens that require calorie restriction or prolonged fasting. In fall 2014, our group will begin a collaboration with breast surgeon, Seema Khan, to conduct the first human trial of time restricted feeding on endocrine and tissue markers of breast cancer risk. Eighty overweight or obese women will be asked to restrict their eating to occur between noon and 8 p.m. daily for 6 months. Because, based on prior research findings, we expect dietary adherence to be less than 50%, we propose an ancillary study to test whether two low burden, technology mediated strategies designed from behavioral science principles can maximize dietary adherence. Women will record food intake using our validated smartphone application and wear a â€oeBite Counter watchâ€? that monitors wrist movements to sense when eating occurs. They will be randomly assigned to 4 groups of 20 in a 2 x 2 design where half receive texts that prompt time-appropriate eating and half receive time-appropriate eating feedback. Results will shed light on low burden strategies that may help reduce cancer risk behaviors.