Impact of Environmental Nudges on Dietary Quality

NCT06119165 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 23-1785
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 2,132
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Purpose: The overall purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a suite of environmentally focused nudges on the nutritional quality of consumers' food selections. Participants: \~2,000 US adults ages 18-25, at least 25% currently enrolled full-time in college, recruited from CloudResearch Prime Panels. Procedures: Participants will be randomly assigned to view food products with or without environmental nudges (eco-labels, peer comparison message, and swaps). They will be asked to select items that they most wish to purchase and will then be asked a series of questions about the products and nudges. Questions will also include standard socio-demographic variables.

Conditions

Healthy Diet

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Nutri-Score Scores

  Healthfulness of product selections (operationalized as products' Nutri-Score scores). Products' Nutri-Score scores are calculated using the updated 2022 algorithm released by the Scientific Committee of the Nutri-Score (ScC). Scores range from -15 (Nutri-Score of "A") to 40 (Nutri-Score of "E"), with lower scores indicating a more healthful product selection.

  Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit

Secondary Outcomes (16)

• Carbon Footprint

  Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit

• Acceptability of Eco-Label Intervention

  Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit

• Acceptability of Swaps Intervention

  Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit

• Acceptability of Peer Comparison Message Intervention

  Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit

• Health Elaboration

  Immediately after exposure to intervention and product selection task, assessed during 1-time online study visit

Study Arms (2)

Control

NO INTERVENTION

Participants will conduct online shopping tasks without any environmental nudges. This includes no labels, peer comparison messages, or suggested product swaps.

Environmental

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in the experimental arm will shop and receive environmental nudges in the form of labels, peer comparisons messages, and suggested product swaps.

Behavioral: Environmental nudges

Interventions

Environmental nudges BEHAVIORAL

Participants will view protein, frozen meal, and snack products with eco-labels applied. For each category, they will then be instructed to select 1 item from that category they wish most to purchase. Categories will be shown in random order. If a participant selects a product with a red eco-label, they will be shown a peer comparison message and will be given an opportunity to switch to a product with a yellow or green eco-label.

Environmental

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 25 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• to 25 years old
• Currently resides in the United States

You may not qualify if:

• Completion of the survey in \<1/3 of the median completion time

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: lead
• Wellcome Trust: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

UNC Carolina Population Center

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27599, United States

Location

Study Officials

• Lindsey Smith Taillie, PhD

  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Anna H Grummon, PhD

  Stanford University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 24, 2023
• First Posted: November 7, 2023
• Study Start: November 28, 2023
• Primary Completion: December 4, 2023
• Study Completion: December 4, 2023
• Last Updated: January 3, 2024

Record last verified: 2023-10

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF
• Time Frame: The deidentified dataset and corresponding survey codebook will be available upon publication of study results and will be available indefinitely.
• Access Criteria: Anyone who wishes to access the data.

Locations

US (1)