Evaluating Household Food Behavior With a Smartphone App (FoodImage)

Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Food Habits

Treatments: Other: Natural Environment/Stress Management; Behavioral: Natural Environment/Reduce Food Waste

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03309306

PBRC 2017-042

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full 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 two current household food waste measurement approaches (a pen-and-paper diary, and a pen-and-paper diary with a scale).
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.

Enrollment: 44 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

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

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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44 participants in 3 patient groups

Phase 1: Lab Testing (Visit 1, Day 0)

No Intervention group

Description:

In a laboratory kitchen, participants will use the following 3 methods to record and measure food waste during simulated shopping trip and kitchen clean-outs: the FoodImage App, Pen-and-paper Records, and Pen-and-paper records with a scale. Measurements will be collected by participants with all three methods, while lab personnel directly weigh foods to provide the criterion value.

Phase 2: RCT Stress Management

Active Comparator group

Description:

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

Treatment:

Other: Natural Environment/Stress Management

Phase 2: RCT Food Waste Reduction

Experimental group

Description:

Phase 2 will occur in participants' natural environment (free-living conditions). 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. 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: 1. Feedback on the amount of food waste their household created during the first week, 2. A goal to reduce the next week's food waste by 20% or more, and 3. Tips on how to reduce household food waste adapted from current consumer campaigns

Treatment:

Behavioral: Natural Environment/Reduce Food Waste