Delays to Influence Snack Choice

Food Choice Clinical Trial

— DISC  

Official title:

Time Over Money? A Novel System to Influence Snack Machine Choices

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02359916
• Other study ID #: 13012802
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: February 2, 2015
• Last updated: January 25, 2018
• Start date: June 2015
• Est. completion date: August 2016

Study information

• Verified date: January 2018
• Source: Rush University Medical Center
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

The pervasiveness of high-calorie, nutrient-poor snacks in the environment is believed to have contributed to the epidemic levels of obesity and cardiometabolic disease in the U.S. This project tests whether a novel snack vending machine system that uses brief time delays to reduce the immediacy of reward from unhealthy snacks will improve the healthfulness of snack choices. If successful, this project will identify a new environmental intervention that could contribute substantially to obesity and cardiometabolic disease prevention efforts in schools, worksites, and other settings.

Description:

Environmental interventions that address the high availability of unhealthy snacks in the environment are needed to prevent a large projected increase in the incidence of obesity and cardiometabolic disease in the U.S. Prior studies from the investigators group and others suggests that the human preference for immediate gratification from food drives dietary overconsumption, but this knowledge has not yet translated to more effective dietary intervention strategies. This project tests whether a novel snack vending machine system that uses brief time delays to reduce the immediacy of reward from unhealthy snacks will improve the healthfulness of snack choices. This study uses an experimental design to compare brief time delays, two forms of 25% differential pricing, and time delays combined with both forms of 25% differential pricing on their ability to increase purchasing of healthy snacks. Test machines will be placed in existing, high-volume vending locations, and each of these five experimental conditions will run for roughly four weeks. Additionally, baseline purchasing under no intervention will be monitored for four weeks before and four weeks after the five experimental conditions. Specific Aim 2 compares the effects of these five interventions against baseline on the proportion of total vending sales from healthy snacks. Specific Aim 3 tests whether time delays or differential pricing harm overall vending machine sales in the test machines. This study not only tests a compelling theory about the effects of time delays and immediate reward on food choice, but evaluates the efficacy and feasibility of a novel intervention to improve the healthfulness of snack choices in worksites, schools, and other settings.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 32662
• Est. completion date: August 2016
• Est. primary completion date: August 2016
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: N/A and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

Exclusion Criteria:

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Food Choice

Intervention

Other:
• Time delays on delivery of less healthy snacks

• 25%/$0.25 discount on healthy snacks

• 25%/$0.25 tax on less healthy snacks

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Rush University Medical Center	Chicago	Illinois

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Rush University Medical Center

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Proportion of Healthy Snacks Purchased	For each experimental condition, we will calculate the proportion of healthy vs unhealthy snacks sold over 4 weeks.	28 weeks per vending location
Secondary	Total Daily Vending Revenue in US$/Day	Total vending machine revenue under each condition	Number of days per condition were as follows - Baseline: 119 days, Discount only: 59 days, Delay only: 68 days, Delay + Discount: 49 days, Tax only: 73 days, Delay + Tax: 60 days