Meals-for-Moms: Experimental Grocery Store Study

Obesity Clinical Trial

Official title:

Relationship Between Income, Obesity, and Food Purchasing Using an Experimental Grocery Store Study (Meals-for-Moms)

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03710525
• Other study ID #: GFHNRC153
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 30, 2018
• Est. completion date: October 2, 2019

Study information

• Verified date: January 2022
• Source: USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This is a study about how the price of foods affects food buying choices at the grocery store. The price of foods can have a big impact on what people choose to buy and prices change over time. This study is being done to see how changes in food prices affect what mothers choose for their families.

Description:

It is well known that the price of a given food affects the amount of that individuals will purchase. Yet little is known about how specific groups, such as obese/overweight individuals and those with lower incomes, change their food purchasing decisions depending food price changes. Evidence shows that these groups have lower quality diets and worse health outcomes than their normal weight and higher income counterparts. Therefore, it is important to gain a better understanding of how food prices changes affect purchasing decisions among these population groups in order to develop targeted nutrition interventions to improve their diet quality. To investigate this the researchers will create a laboratory-based grocery store, in which pictures of foods will be used in lieu of actual foods. Food prices will be indicated on each picture. Participants will be given play money and a budget, and asked to "purchase" foods in the mock grocery store. The price of foods will be changed throughout the study to investigate how participants change their purchasing decisions based on these price changes.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 80
• Est. completion date: October 2, 2019
• Est. primary completion date: October 2, 2019
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Female
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Have at least one child up to 18 years of age residing in the household
• Primary grocery shopper for the household
• No health conditions or food practices that substantially limit choice
• Not currently pregnant
• Consent to study design

Exclusion Criteria:

• Male
• < 18 years of age
• Not a mother, or children not living with subject in their household
• No children below the age of 18 years of age
• Not the primary grocery shopper for their household
• Health conditions or food practices that substantially limit food choice
• Currently pregnant

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Obesity
• Overweight

Intervention

Other:
• Own-Price Elasticity
The price of vegetables will be 75%, 100%, or 125% of the reference price, but the price of other foods will remain the same.
• Cross-Price Elasticity
The price of vegetables will remain the same, but the price of other foods will be 75%, 100%, or 125% of the reference price.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center	Grand Forks	North Dakota

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Price elasticity of vegetables	Percent change in the amount of vegetables purchased (gram weight) for every percent change in the price of a given food.	Baseline
Secondary	Nutrient density of purchased foods	Ratio of low nutrient-dense food purchases to high nutrient-dense food purchases	Baseline