Evaluating Household Food Behavior With a Smartphone App

Food Habits Clinical Trial

— FoodImage  

Official title:

Evaluating Household Food Behavior With a Smartphone App

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03309306
• Other study ID #: PBRC 2017-042
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: April 26, 2018
• Est. completion date: March 31, 2020

Study information

• Verified date: November 2022
• Source: Pennington Biomedical Research Center
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to test the use of a smartphone app as a way to measure food waste.

Investigators propose to improve the accuracy and convenience of household food waste measurement so that consumer food waste program evaluations yield more power, less bias, less measurement error, and greater representation of targeted populations.

Description:

Investigators will improve measurement via the development of the FoodImage smartphone app, a technology leveraging the investigators' expertise in creating and deploying apps to measure food intake and deliver nutritional interventions in free-living household conditions. Investigators will validate the app against weighed waste in a controlled laboratory setting.

The study will yield an app ready for future study deployment while analyses of the data will inform rapidly evolving policy discussions concerning optimal approaches to reduce food waste. These outcomes align with program priorities to understand the economics of food waste and to use behavioral economics to address consumption behavior.

Specific objectives include:

1. Development of FoodImage, a smartphone app that measures household food waste and food-waste-related behaviors,

2. Assess differences in the accuracy and time burden of measurements taken with the FoodImage app versus current household food waste measurement approaches (a pen-and-paper diary)

3. Use the FoodImage app in a pilot randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of reducing household food waste through behavioral nudges in the form of personalized feedback about food waste levels and household-specific reduction goals.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 44
• Est. completion date: March 31, 2020
• Est. primary completion date: September 7, 2018
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 65 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• age 18-65 years

• body mass index 18.5 - 50 kg/m2, based on self-reported height and weight

• Shops for groceries

• Conducts some of the food shopping and food preparation for their household

• Be willing to do food shopping for the study (if necessary)

• Have an iPhone and an operable Apple ID, password, and email address and is willing to use these to collect data during the study, acknowledging that data usage, and associated charges, are a result of study participation

• Be willing to complete all study procedures corresponding to their randomization group

Exclusion Criteria:

In addition to those who do not meet inclusion criteria, subjects who meet any of the following criteria will be excluded from enrollment:

• Persons who are severely immune compromised

• Persons who are pregnant, as assessed by self-report

• Pennington employee

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Food Habits

Intervention

Other:
• Natural Environment/Stress Management
Participants will use the FoodImage app to capture data on food purchases, food waste that occurs during food preparation, food waste that is present after eating, and food waste from food purges in free-living conditions. Participants will capture baseline data for 4-7 days. After a 1-week break, participants will use the app to record food waste for approximately 4-7 days over the subsequent week. They will also receive information on stress management

Behavioral:
• Natural Environment/Reduce Food Waste
Participants will use the FoodImage app to capture data on food purchases, food waste that occurs during food preparation, food waste that is present after eating, and food waste from food purges in free-living conditions. Participants will use the app to record food waste for approximately 4-7 days over the subsequent week. They will also be provided with the following: Feedback on the amount of food waste their household created during the first week, A goal to reduce the next week's food waste by 20% or more, and Tips on how to reduce household food waste adapted from current consumer campaigns

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Pennington Biomedical Research Center	Baton Rouge	Louisiana

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Pennington Biomedical Research Center	Ohio State University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Phase 1: Food waste error	Determining if the error from the FoodImage app is smaller than error from the pen-and-paper records.	Lab Test, average of 4 hours at Visit 1
Secondary	Phase 2: Weight of all household waste	Difference in change in total weight of all sources of household food waste.	Baseline to Day 14