Impact of Environmental Nudges on Dietary Quality

University of North Carolina (UNC)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Healthy Diet

Treatments: Behavioral: Environmental nudges

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06119165

23-1785

Details and patient eligibility

About

Purpose: The overall purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a suite of environmentally focused nudges on the nutritional quality of consumers' food selections.

Participants: ~2,000 US adults ages 18-25, at least 25% currently enrolled full-time in college, recruited from CloudResearch Prime Panels.

Procedures: Participants will be randomly assigned to view food products with or without environmental nudges (eco-labels, peer comparison message, and swaps). They will be asked to select items that they most wish to purchase and will then be asked a series of questions about the products and nudges. Questions will also include standard socio-demographic variables.

Full description

Participants will be recruited from CloudResearch Prime Panels (an online panel research company). Study participants include 2,000 young adults between 18 and 25 years old with at least 25% currently enrolled in college, recruited to match census distribution of race/ethnicity and gender. Participants will electronically acknowledge their consent to participate in the study.

On the study platform (Qualtrics), participants will be randomly assigned to 1 of 2 arms with equal probability. Participants will complete a shopping task via an online 9-minute survey. They will view products displayed as if they were offered from a grocery store. Products will be frozen meals, such as burritos and pizza, snack items such as dried fruit and chips, and protein items, such as ground beef and chicken breasts. They will then be instructed to select 1 item they most wish to purchase from each category.

Participants in the experimental arm will shop and receive environmental nudges in the form of labels, feedback, peer comparisons, and suggested product swaps. In the control arm, participants will conduct online shopping tasks without any environmental nudges. After selecting products, participants will answer questions about the products and labels, as well as standard socio-demographic questions.

Enrollment: 2,132 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 25 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 18 to 25 years old
• Currently resides in the United States

Exclusion criteria

• Completion of the survey in <1/3 of the median completion time

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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2,132 participants in 2 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants will conduct online shopping tasks without any environmental nudges. This includes no labels, peer comparison messages, or suggested product swaps.

Environmental

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the experimental arm will shop and receive environmental nudges in the form of labels, peer comparisons messages, and suggested product swaps.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Environmental nudges