Effects of Restaurant Menu Design on Food Ordering Outcomes

Food Preferences Clinical Trial

Official title:

Effects of Menu Design on Psychophysiological Measures of Cognitive Load and Food Ordering Outcomes

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03337633
• Other study ID #: X140313004
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: October 18, 2017
• Last updated: November 6, 2017
• Start date: April 1, 2014
• Est. completion date: March 20, 2015

Study information

• Verified date: November 2017
• Source: University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

High cognitive load activities can influence energy intake from food. It is unknown how restaurant menu designs may affect patrons in terms of cognitive demand and subsequent ordering of food.Objective: Our objective was to develop and experimentally test menu designs that differ in cognitive load to test the subjective and objective stress measures on food ordering.

Description:

For the first experiment, a parallel randomized trial of healthy young adults (n= 30) was conducted to compare ordering from one of two menu designs (easy - E, hard - H) developed in a prior pilot study. In the second experiment, restrained eaters were specifically recruited and asked to fast before the experiment to determine the influence of cognitive load of menus on energy ordered (n=31). Galvanic skin response was used as an objective proxy for relative cognitive load, and questionnaires were used to assess perceptions of the menus. The main outcomes were the number of items ordered and total energy of the items ordered (in kilocalories).

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 61
• Est. completion date: March 20, 2015
• Est. primary completion date: March 20, 2015
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 19 Years to 35 Years

Eligibility

Experiment 1

Inclusion Criteria:

• Normal vision or corrective lenses

• Normal hearing or a hearing aid

• A moderate level of English proficiency or greater

• Free from current food restrictions

Exclusion Criteria:

• Unwilling/uninterested in participation

• Currently taking any ß-blocker medications

• Any serious skin conditions on the hands (because of galvanic skin sensors worn for the protocol)

Experiment 2

Inclusion Criteria:

• Normal vision or corrective lenses

• Normal hearing or a hearing aid

• A moderate level of English proficiency or greater

• Free from current food restrictions

• Qualifying as a restrained eater by the Cognitive Restraint scale on the Eating Inventory (score of 6 for men and 10 for women)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Unwilling/uninterested in participation

• Currently taking any ß-blocker medications

• Any serious skin conditions on the hands (because of galvanic skin sensors worn for the protocol)

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Food Preferences

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Menu design
Participants were given 5 minutes to order a hypothetical meal from the assigned test menu by circling all items they wanted to order.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Alabama at Birmingham	Texas Tech University

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Total Number of Items Ordered	Total number of items ordered off assigned menu	During the 5-minute menu ordering task
Primary	Total Energy of Items ordered	Total Energy (kcals) of items ordered off assigned menu	During the 5-minute menu ordering task
Secondary	Subjective ratings of difficulty of using assigned menu to order a meal	Assessed by NASA Task Load Index questionnaire	Immediately (1 minute) following the 5-minute menu ordering period
Secondary	Galvanic Skin Response	An objective proxy for relative cognitive load; this measure has been shown to be positively correlated with psychological stress or cognitive challenge as mediated by sympathetic nervous system activity	During the 5-minute menu ordering task