Attitudes and Understanding of Plant Sterol Claims on Food Labels

General Population Clinical Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01932840
• Other study ID #: AFMnet-01
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: August 27, 2013
• Last updated: August 27, 2013
• Start date: September 2011
• Est. completion date: October 2011

Study information

• Verified date: August 2013
• Source: University of Toronto
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Canada: Ethics Review Committee
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

Daily consumption of plant sterols have been demonstrated to lower blood cholesterol. The Canadian government has recently allowed plant sterols to be added to certain foods and has also approved a disease risk reduction claim to be allowed on products containing plant sterols. However, it is unknown how Canadian consumers respond to plant sterol claims.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the attitudes and understanding of different types of plant sterol claims on food labels

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 1017
• Est. completion date: October 2011
• Est. primary completion date: October 2011
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 20 Years to 69 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Primary grocery shoppers

• Canadian adults between the ages 20 to 69 years

Exclusion Criteria:

• Did not have an active email address or access to internet

Study Design

Observational Model: Ecologic or Community, Time Perspective: Cross-Sectional

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Consumer Research
• General Population

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Mock package questionnaire
Within a online questionnaire we exposed participants randomly to 4 mock margarine packages differing only by the claim it carried and asked participants to answer several questions on attitudes and understanding after each mock package.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Canada	University of Guelph	Guelph	Ontario

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Toronto	Advance Foods and Materials Network

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Canada, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Response to survey questions measuring attitudes towards plant sterol claims using 5-point likert rating scales	Within a online survey, participants were exposed to 4 mock margarine packages that differed only by the claim it carried. After being exposed to each mock package, participants were asked to rate their perceived attractiveness, healthiness, credibility, usefulness of the tested plant sterol claims using 5-point likert scales. Participants were also asked to rate their purchasing intentions of the mock margarine product with the different plant sterol claims.	On average the survey took 25 min to complete	No
Primary	Response to survey questions evaluating participants understanding of plant sterol claims	After each mock package, understanding of plant sterol claims was evaluated using various survey methods. First, participants were asked to rate their perceived clarity of the wording of the claim using a 5-point likert scale (a subjective measure of understanding). Second, participants were ask to rate, on 5-point likert scales, the perceived benefit of consuming the mock margarine package for subgroups with different health conditions (an indirect measure of understanding). Finally we asked participants, in an open ended question, to explain what a claim means to a friend (an objective measure of understanding).	On average the survey took 25 minutes to complete	No

External Links

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