The KP Personal Shopper: A Pilot to Improve the Impact of Dietary Advice

Kaiser Permanente

Status: Completed

Conditions: Overweight; Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: KP Personal Shopper Visits; Behavioral: In-Office Dietitian Visits

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01837524

Pro00003988

Details and patient eligibility

About

Randomized trial of grocery-store based nutrition counseling visits for weight management vs. in-office visits. The investigators will test pre- and post-intervention individual-level dietary quality, knowledge, self-efficacy around dietary choice, and cost of shopping, measuring difference between intervention and control arms. At the study's end, the investigators will also conduct focus groups with a subset of 20 patients (10 from each arm) and do a structured interview with the dietitian to better understand the feasibility, strengths and shortcomings of this approach. Patients who complete the main portion of the trial will be randomly selected for recruitment into a focus group and consented separately for that focus group at the end of the study.

The investigators hypothesize that, compared to office-based visits, the KP Personal Shopper visits will result in higher member diet quality scores, better nutritional knowledge scores, higher self-efficacy and confidence around food purchasing decisions, and more favorable perception of the visit by both dietician and member. The KP Personal Shopper approach may also result in increased grocery store costs for some members. Long-term, the investigators hypothesize that improvements in member perception, knowledge and dietary quality will lead to improved health outcomes.

Enrollment: 55 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 64 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Employee population of a specific Southeastern U.S. County
• 18-64 years of age
• Body Mass Index greater than or equal to 30kg/m^2 (Obese)
• Low rate of no-shows for office visits (<10%)
• Saw PCP or other provider in past 12 months
• Does at least 50% of the food shopping and/or food preparation for their household

Exclusion criteria

• non-English speaking
• Currently being treated for cancer (other than non-melanoma skin cancer)
• Pregnant or planning pregnancy in the next 6 months
• Had or considering having bariatric surgery
• Currently participating in commercial weight loss program (e.g. Jenny Craig)
• Currently enrolled in another weight management or nutrition study

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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55 participants in 2 patient groups

Grocery-Store-Based Visit Arm

Experimental group

Description:

25 participants will be randomized to this arm. They will receive a baseline 30-minute phone call with the study dietitian to determine their current health problems, dietary patterns, shopping and cooking habits and health goals. They will then have 3 in-person visits with the dietitian conducted during grocery shopping trips at a local supermarket. These in-person visits will be conducted monthly over a 3 month period. The information delivered in the visits will be similar in content to that delivered in an in-office visit, including how to pick the best types of foods or ingredients for a given health condition, how to read and understand food labels, healthy recipes, how to track food and drink intake, and basic nutritional knowledge.

Treatment:

Behavioral: KP Personal Shopper Visits

Office-Based Visit Arm

Active Comparator group

Description:

25 participants will be randomized to this arm. They will receive a baseline 30-minute phone call with the study dietitian to determine their current health problems, dietary patterns, shopping and cooking habits and health goals. They will then have 3 in-person visits with the dietitian conducted in an office at one of our medical office buildings. These in-person visits will be conducted monthly over a 3 month period. The information delivered in the visits will include how to pick the best types of foods or ingredients for a given health condition, how to read and understand food labels, healthy recipes, how to track food and drink intake, and basic nutritional knowledge.

Treatment:

Behavioral: In-Office Dietitian Visits