Attitudes and Understanding of Sodium Claims on Food Labels

Hypertension Clinical Trial

Official title:

Consumer Attitudes and Understanding of Low Sodium Claims on Food: An Analysis of Healthy and Hypertensive Individuals

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01764724
• Other study ID #: 201103SOK-01
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: January 3, 2013
• Last updated: January 9, 2013
• Start date: September 2011
• Est. completion date: October 2011

Study information

• Verified date: January 2013
• Source: University of Toronto
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Canada: Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

Sodium-related claims on food labels should help people find lower sodium food choices; however consumer attitudes and understanding of such claims are unknown.

The objective of this study was to evaluate: 1) the attitudes and understanding to different types of permitted sodium claims and 2) the effect of hypertension on responses to such claims.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 987
• Est. completion date: October 2011
• Est. primary completion date: October 2011
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 20 Years to 69 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Primary grocery shoppers

• Canadian adults between the ages 20 to 69 years

Exclusion Criteria:

• Did not have an email address or have access to internet

Study Design

Observational Model: Ecologic or Community, Time Perspective: Cross-Sectional

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Hypertension

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Mock package questionnaire
Within a online questionnaire we exposed participants randomly to 4 mock packages differing only by the nutrition claim it carried and asked participants to answer several questions on attitudes and understanding after each mock package.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Canada	University of Guelph	Guelph	Ontario

Sponsors (4)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Toronto	Advance Foods and Materials Network, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canadian Stroke Network

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Canada, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Response to survey questions measuring attitudes towards sodium claims using 5 point likert rating scales	Within an online survey, participants were exposed to 4 mock soup packages that differed only by the claim it carried. After being exposed to each mock package, participants were asked to rate their perceived attractiveness, healthiness, credibility, usefulness of the tested sodium claims using 5 point likert scales. Participants were also asked to rate their purchasing intentions of the mock soup product with the different sodium claims.	On average the survey took 25 minutes to complete	No
Primary	Response to survey questions evaluating participants understanding of sodium claims	After each mock package, understanding of sodium claims was evaluated using various survey methods. First, participants were asked to rate their perceived clarity of the wording of the claim using a 5 point likert scale (a subjective measure of understanding). Second, participants were ask to rate, on 5 point likert scales, the perceived benefit of consuming the mock package for subgroups with different health conditions (an indirect measure of understanding). Finally we asked participants, in an open ended question, to explain what a claim means to a friend (an objective measure of understanding).	On average the survey took 25 minutes to complete	No

External Links

•   Link