Front-of-package Marketing on Fruit Drinks: Online RCT

Consumer Behavior Clinical Trial

Official title:

Testing the Impact of Front-of-package Claims, Imagery, Nutrition Disclosures, and Added Sugar Warning Labels on Fruit Drinks in an Online Store: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04811690
• Other study ID #: 76336
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: May 19, 2021
• Est. completion date: July 21, 2021

Study information

• Verified date: July 2021
• Source: Harvard School of Public Health
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study will test the independent and combined effects of front-of-package claims, imagery, nutrition disclosures, and added sugar warning labels on parents' purchases and perceptions of beverages for their children.

Description:

Fruit drinks are widely consumed by 0-5-year-olds. Parents purchase these drinks for their children in part due to misperceptions that they are healthful, which may be driven by front-of-package (FOP) marketing. The FDA is considering changes to FOP marketing regulations but lacks data on how label elements influence consumer behavior. Our study will test the independent and combined effects of FOP claims, imagery, nutrition disclosures, and added sugar warning labels on parents' purchases and perceptions of beverages for their children. We will conduct an online randomized controlled trial with 5,000 racially/ethnically diverse primary caregivers of children aged 0-5 years. Participants will choose a beverage for their child in an online store and rate health perceptions of different fruit drinks. Participants will be randomized to see high-added-sugar beverages (>20% DV added sugar/serving) with 1 of 7 FOP label conditions: 1) vitamin C claim and fruit imagery (control); 2) imagery only; 3) claim only; 4) no claim or imagery; 5) claim, imagery, and % juice disclosure; 6) claim, imagery, and added sugar warning; or 7) claim, imagery, and added sugar warning w/teaspoons of added sugar. Primary outcomes will include total calories and added sugar (grams) from chosen online store beverages. Secondary outcomes will include health perceptions and knowledge of added sugar and % juice content in low- and high-added-sugar fruit drinks. This research will inform federal regulation to correct health misperceptions of sugary drinks.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 5028
• Est. completion date: July 21, 2021
• Est. primary completion date: July 21, 2021
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Primary caregiver of a child 0-5 years old
• >= 18 years old
• U.S. citizen

Exclusion Criteria:

• Participants who complete the survey in less than 1/3 of the median completion time
• Observations from duplicate IP addresses (keep first observation that is unique)
• Participants who answer data integrity check incorrectly

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Consumer Behavior
• Consumer Preference

Intervention

Behavioral:
• front-of-package modification
testing front-of-package changes to claims, imagery, disclosures, and added sugar warning labels on fruit-flavored drinks

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Online Recruitment, run via Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health	Boston	Massachusetts

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Harvard School of Public Health	Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Calories in beverage chosen in online store task	Calories in beverage chosen in online store task	through study completion, an average of 15 minutes
Primary	Added sugar content (grams) of beverage chosen in online store task	Added sugar content (grams) of beverage chosen in online store task	through study completion, an average of 15 minutes
Secondary	Percentage of participants that chose a drink high in added sugars in online store task	Percentage of participants that chose a drink high in added sugars (>=20%DV) in online store task	through study completion, an average of 15 minutes
Secondary	Percentage of participants that chose each drink category in online store task	Percentage of participants that chose each drink category (e.g., 100% juice, fruit drinks) in online store task	through study completion, an average of 15 minutes
Secondary	Fruit drink perceptions: likelihood to purchase for child, how healthy for child, how appealing to child, disease risk perceptions for child	Fruit drink perceptions: likelihood to purchase for child, how healthy for child, how appealing to child, disease risk perceptions for child	through study completion, an average of 15 minutes
Secondary	Knowledge of juice and added sugar content in beverage	Knowledge of % juice and added sugar content (categorical and continuous in grams) in beverage	through study completion, an average of 15 minutes