Vending Labeling Sales and Intercepts Study

Obesity Clinical Trial

Official title:

A Large Scale Long-term Randomized Trial of Nutrition Labeling Interventions

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT06260176
• Other study ID #: 828722
• Secondary ID: R01DK11330715163
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: February 1, 2019
• Est. completion date: March 12, 2020

Study information

• Verified date: February 2024
• Source: University of Pennsylvania
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The aim of this study is to compare the impact of 4 different types of front of package (FOP) food and beverage messages: 1) green labels on healthy foods, 2) red/yellow/green labels on less healthy/moderately healthy/healthy foods, 3) physical activity calorie equivalent labels, and 4) posters reminding consumers of the sweetened beverage tax on consumers' beverage and snack selections.

Description:

This project involves a randomized field experiment. The investigators worked with the vending contractor for the City of Philadelphia to randomize vending machine locations (covering ~260 beverage and snack machines) to one of the four different message conditions: 1) single green traffic light labels (on healthy foods); 2) multiple traffic light labels (red traffic light labels applied to less healthy foods, yellow applied to moderately healthy foods, and green on healthy foods); 3) physical activity labels (calorie content displayed in terms of physical activity equivalents); 4) posters reminding consumers of the Philadelphia sweetened beverage tax and encouraging healthier choices. The City's vending machine contractors provided monthly aggregated sales data from each machine for analysis. Customer intercepts were also collected at the point of sale, after customers completed their purchase, to evaluate factors that moderate message influence. They were asked to answer questions about their perceptions of the different labels.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 1065
• Est. completion date: March 12, 2020
• Est. primary completion date: March 12, 2020
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Sales data include all purchases at the machine regardless of customer demographics. Customer purchase assessment data were collected from:

Inclusion Criteria:

• Any person aged 18 or older making a purchase from the vending machines included in this intervention will be asked to participate in this study.

Exclusion Criteria:

• People who indicate they have already taken the survey are not eligible to take the survey again.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Food Preferences
• Obesity
• Weight Gain

Intervention

Behavioral:
• exposure to healthy labels only
Green labels only for beverages and foods scored as healthy
• exposure to healthiness information
All beverages and foods labeled as either healthy (green), moderately healthy (yellow), or less healthy (red)
• exposure to physical activity equivalents
All beverages and foods labeled with physical activity required to burn their calories
• exposure to sweetened beverage tax messaging
Message reminding consumers to make healthier choices

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Pennsylvania	National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Percentage of beverages sold with calories per month	Outcome is percentage of monthly beverages selected that had calories	Every month, for 13 months
Primary	Calories sold from beverages per month, if beverages with calories sold	Outcome is calories in beverages sold per month - only for beverages with calories.	Every month, for 13 months
Primary	Calories sold from snacks per month	Outcome is calories in snacks sold per month.	Every month, for 13 months
Primary	Likelihood of selecting a healthy beverage	Outcome is percentage of monthly beverages selected were healthy beverages (green labeled in the traffic light condition)	Every month, for 13 months
Primary	Likelihood of selecting a moderately healthy beverage	Outcome is percentage of monthly beverages selected were moderately healthy beverages (yellow labeled in the traffic light condition)	Every month, for 13 months
Primary	Likelihood of selecting a less healthy beverage	Outcome is percentage of monthly beverages selected were less healthy beverages (red labeled in the traffic light condition)	Every month, for 13 months
Primary	Likelihood of selecting a healthy snack	Outcome is percentage of monthly snacks selected were healthy snacks (green labeled in the traffic light condition)	Every month, for 13 months
Primary	Likelihood of selecting a moderately healthy snack	Outcome is percentage of monthly snacks selected were moderately healthy snacks (yellow labeled in the traffic light condition)	Every month, for 13 months
Primary	Likelihood of selecting a less healthy snack	Outcome is percentage of monthly snacks selected were less healthy snacks (red labeled in the traffic light condition)	Every month, for 13 months
Primary	Total beverage units sold per month per machine.	Outcome is number of monthly beverages sold per machine	Every month, for 13 months
Primary	Total snack units sold per month per machine	Outcome is number of monthly snacks sold per machine	Every month, for 13 months
Secondary	Total revenue per month per beverage machine	Outcome is the total dollar sales per month per beverage machine.	Every month, for 13 months
Secondary	Total revenue per month per snack machine	Outcome is the total dollar sales per month per snack machine.	Every month, for 13 months
Secondary	Total calories sold per customer trip	Customer purchase assessments will be conducted in front of study machines. Outcome is total number of calories (beverage + snack) purchased per customer trip.	5-minute survey