Effects of Sugary Drink Warning Labels

University of Pennsylvania

Status: Terminated

Conditions: Diabetes; Weight Gain; Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: Sugary drink warning labels

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03654586

1R01DK111558-01A1

Details and patient eligibility

About

The primary objective of this study is to determine to what degree sugary drink warning labels increase consumers' knowledge about the potential health harms of sugary drinks and reduce sugary drink intake. The study is designed to answer three additional questions: 1) Do some warning labels work better than others? 2) What is the effect of warning labels over time? 3) If warning labels influence behavior, is it because they increase knowledge or simply provide a salient reminder that some drinks are less healthy? This study will test the effect of repeated exposure to warning labels on total calories purchased over time and assess whether knowledge or salience better explain label effects.

Enrollment: 337 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria: Participants must:

• be a primary caregiver of a child under 12 years old;
• be ≥18 years old;
• read and speak English;
• drink sugary drinks at least twelve times per month (~three times per week) and have a child who does the same
• be the primary grocery shopper for their family;
• have regular internet access.

Exclusion Criteria:

• not a primary caregiver of a child under 12 years old
• <18 years old
• cannot read and speak English
• does not drink sugary drinks at least 12 times per month and have a child who does the same
• is not the primary grocery shopper for their family
• does not have regular internet access

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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337 participants in 4 patient groups

Calorie label

Active Comparator group

Description:

Calorie label (control) will display a "Calories per Bottle" label on all beverages, not just sugary drinks. This is modeled after the American Beverage Association's current "Clear on Calories" labels.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Sugary drink warning labels

Text warning label

Experimental group

Description:

Text warning labels will display the following text on sugary beverages: WARNING: drinking beverages with added sugars contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay

Treatment:

Behavioral: Sugary drink warning labels

Sugar graphic warning label

Experimental group

Description:

Sugar graphic warning labels will display the same text as "text warning labels" along with graphics depicting the amount of sugar in the beverage

Treatment:

Behavioral: Sugary drink warning labels

Health graphic warning label

Experimental group

Description:

Health graphic warning label will display the same text as "text warning labels" along with graphics depicting the potential negative health consequences of over-consuming sugary drinks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Sugary drink warning labels