"Make It Fresh, For Less" Supermarket Pilot Study

President and Fellows of Harvard College

Status: Completed

Conditions: Food Habits; Consumer Behavior

Treatments: Behavioral: environmental change; Behavioral: messaging

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03340363

BECR-111191

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of environmental modifications (choice architecture and a marketing campaign) in combination with weekly text messages on purchases of foods made by parents shopping in a large supermarket.

Full description

The "Make It Fresh, For Less" Supermarket Pilot Study is a supermarket-based intervention developed by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in collaboration with the nonprofit organization ChopChop Magazine (chopchopmagazine.org) and a large Northeastern supermarket chain. A promotional campaign advertising low-cost, kid-friendly meals was piloted in one store selected by the supermarket partner, with promotions rotating every 4 weeks during a 16-week intervention period. Parent shoppers were recruited (n=401) at the store and given a study loyalty card to track their transactions. At the start of the intervention, half of the participants were additionally randomized to receive weekly behavioral messages via text message or email. Supermarket purchases were assessed at baseline, during the 16-week intervention, and up to 6-weeks post-intervention.

Primary Aim 1: to examine the impact of a choice architecture intervention in combination with a promotional campaign on food purchases of parents shopping in a large supermarket. It is hypothesized that there will be an increase in selection of foods targeted by the promotional campaign when physical modifications are made.

Primary Aim 2: to examine the impact of weekly behavioral messages in combination with an environmental change intervention on food purchases of parents shopping in a large supermarket. It is hypothesized that there will be a greater increase in selection of foods targeted by the promotional campaign among participants receiving the messages compared to participants exposed to the environmental change intervention alone.

Enrollment: 401 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 18 years of age or older
• English-speaking
• Live with a child 18 years of age or younger
• Do more than 50% of shopping at the study store
• Primary shopper in the household

Exclusion criteria

• None

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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401 participants in 2 patient groups

environmental change

Experimental group

Description:

Shoppers were exposed to modifications to the supermarket environment to encourage selection of low-cost, kid-friendly meals

Treatment:

Behavioral: environmental change

environmental change and messaging

Experimental group

Description:

Shoppers were exposed to modifications to the supermarket environment and weekly messages via text or email to encourage selection of low-cost, kid-friendly meals

Treatment:

Behavioral: messaging

Behavioral: environmental change