Randomized Trial of Healthy Eating Interventions (WTE)

University of Pennsylvania

Status: Completed

Conditions: Nutrition Therapy

Treatments: Behavioral: Information provision + tiered incentive; Behavioral: Usual Care; Behavioral: information provision + flat incentive; Behavioral: Information provision intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT01436097

RC2AG036592 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

WTE-814279

Details and patient eligibility

About

Interventions to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables to date have shown promise, but many have limited public health impact due to the lack of scalability of their designs. The investigators propose to examine the effectiveness and feasibility of an intervention for promoting increased consumption of fruits and vegetables by incentivizing their purchase. Collaborating with UpLift Solutions, the investigators will enroll shoppers in this Randomized Clinical Trial using the research infrastructure called the Way to Health platform. (called the Way to Health platform, and approved as a Prime protocol by the IRB as reference # 811860).

Hypothesis: providing patients with financial incentives can promote healthier behaviors (e.g.: eating healthier).

Full description

This is a pilot study under the IRB-approved umbrella protocol number 811698 named Penn-CMU Roybal Center on Behavioral Economics and Health. Interventions to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables to date have shown promise, but many have limited public health impact due to the lack of scalability of their designs. Many interventions only provided information on what constitutes healthier eating or provided discounts on specific products.Other interventions were limited in generalizability due to utilization of very specific eating establishments or vending machines.By contrast, the investigators propose to examine the effectiveness and feasibility of an intervention for promoting increased consumption of fruits and vegetables by incentivizing their purchase where the overwhelming majority of food is sold: grocery stores. Collaborating with Brown's Super Stores and UpLift Solutions leadership, the investigators will enroll shoppers in this Randomized Clinical Trial using our the web-based research infrastructure called the Way to Health platform.

The primary aim of this project is to generate preliminary evidence of the efficacy of two financial incentive structures in promoting the allocation of a greater percentage of ones grocery budget to the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables (hereafter, produce). Secondary aims are to evaluate these interventions effects on (1) self-reported consumption of produce, and (2) weight. Salutary goals of this pilot study are to document feasibility of using Price Plus cards for incentive studies, and to expand the functionality of the Way Health platform.

Enrollment: 42 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Current Parkside Brown's Super Stores shoppers who use a Price Plus Card
• Have regular internet access
• Spend at least $30 per household member per week on groceries
• Spend 10% or less of their grocery budget on produce
• 18 years of age or older
• weekly grocery shoppers

Exclusion criteria

• Plan to move in the next 4 months
• Plan to stop shopping at Brown's Super Stores in the next 4 months
• Plan to stop using their Price Plus card in the next 4 months
• Receive any assistance like SNAP or WIC

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

---

42 participants in 4 patient groups

Usual Care arm

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will have access through the Way to Health portal to web-based educational materials and recipes related to healthy eating. They will be informed they will receive up to $50 in reimbursements for completing the surveys that are part of the Way To Eat program as follows: $20 for completing the intake questionnaire and weigh-in and $30 reimbursements for completing the exit questionnaire and weigh-in.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Usual Care

Information provision intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the Information provision group will receive the same care as those in the Usual Care arm. In addition, the Information provision group participants will receive weekly reminders about the benefits of eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day and their Way to Health portal will provide graphical depictions of their produce purchase proportions through information from their Price Plus card. This data will be available to them throughout the entire intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Information provision intervention

Information provision + flat incentive

Experimental group

Description:

Participants assigned to the Information provision + flat group will earn back 15% of what they spent on groceries for the week if they spend at least 15% of their total grocery budget on fresh produce in addition to receiving the same treatment as the Information provision arm.

Treatment:

Behavioral: information provision + flat incentive

Information provision + tiered incentive

Experimental group

Description:

In addition to receiving all features of the Information provision treatment the participants assigned to the Information provision + tiered incentive group would earn back increasing percentages of their grocery spending for meeting increasing targets of produce consumption. In this arm, the more participants spend on produce the more money they can earn back.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Information provision + tiered incentive