Reshaping Food Choice at University of Michigan

University of Michigan

Status: Completed

Conditions: Food Preferences; Climate Change

Treatments: Other: Changing default menu options; Other: Carbon impact labels; Other: Taste-focused labels

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05131529

HUM00198619

Details and patient eligibility

About

Nearly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions originate from agriculture. Consumer demand for food, especially carbon-intensive red meats, largely underlies these emissions. Therefore, reducing consumption of red meat has the potential for transformative impacts on climate change. Our interdisciplinary team of researchers and dining staff aims to determine the carbon impact of evidence-based behavior change interventions to reduce red meat consumption at University of Michigan dining halls. Using an experimental design, we will evaluate the impacts of three "nudge" interventions (i.e., modifying environmental cues and incentives) to reduce red meat consumption in three randomly assigned treatment dining halls vis-à-vis three paired control dining halls. Nudges will include changing default food items and altering food labels. We will: 1) collect data on meals served during each intervention periods to assess the separate and combined effects of the interventions on red meat consumption; 2) conduct e-mail interviews with students to understand treatment effect heterogeneity and sociodemographic determinants of food choice; and, 3) conduct focus group discussions and interviews, respectively, with students and dining staff to assess implementation feasibility. We expect that this research will generate scalable, replicable solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through dietary change at universities and similar institutions, will significantly advance the food choice literature, and will influence sustainability strategies at university dining operations nationally given the proposed team's close partnership with regional and national dining programs.

Enrollment: 3,003 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Student Survey:

• An individual must have been a frequent diner at one of the six project dining halls during the first three weeks of the academic term
• An individual must have attended only treatment or only control dining halls for 90% or more of their dining hall visits during the first three weeks of the academic term

Student Focus Group:

• Must have participated in the student survey
• We will stratify the sample by selecting respondents whose red meat consumption either increased, decreased or remained the same (based on baseline to endline comparisons of data in the student survey)

Dining Staff Interviews:

• Must have been a non-student member of the Michigan Dining staff at one of the six project dining halls during the relevant intervention period.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Sequential Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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3,003 participants in 2 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

The 3 dining halls allocated to this arm will receive none of the three interventions during the 3 semesters of the project.

Treatment

Experimental group

Description:

The 3 dining halls allocated to this arm will receive one intervention during each of the 3 semesters of the project (only one intervention per semester).

Treatment:

Other: Carbon impact labels

Other: Taste-focused labels

Other: Changing default menu options