Studying the Impact of Product Packaging in a Virtual Store Environment
Condition: Obesity, Childhood
MeSH terms: Pediatric Obesity
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Purpose: Examine the impact of nutrition claims on parents' decisions to purchase fruit
      drinks in a randomized controlled trial in an online virtual convenience store (task 1) and
      examine the impact of added sugar warnings on parents' snack purchasing decisions in a
      randomized controlled trial in an online virtual convenience store.

      Participants: Participants will consist of approximately 2,500 individuals 18 and older with
      at least one child ages 1-5. The child 1-5 who had their birthday most recently must have
      consumed at least one fruit drink in the previous week. Additionally, they will live in the
      United States and identify as non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white, or Hispanic. The panel
      research company Kantar will recruit individuals from its pool of potential individuals.

      Procedures (methods): The investigators will randomize participants to one of 12 versions of
      a virtual convenience store (iShoppe) and then the participants will complete two shopping
      tasks in the store. They will select two beverages (task 1) for their child 1-5 who had their
      birthday most recently, and they will select a snack (task 2) for that same child. After
      completing the shopping tasks, the participant will complete a survey in Qualtrics. The
      survey will ask a series of questions about the beverages and snacks (e.g., perceived
      healthfulness, perceived appeal, intentions to consume products). Questions will also include
      standard demographic and health related variables.
    

Detailed description: 
      There are major racial-ethnic disparities in the US childhood obesity epidemic. Among
      children age 1-5 years, Black children are twice as likely to be obese and Latino children
      are three times as likely to be obese compared to White children. Sugar-sweetened beverage
      (SSB) and processed food consumption are major drivers of the childhood obesity epidemic, and
      an important driver of racial-ethnic obesity disparities. Policies to reduce marketing and
      require warning labels are important strategies for improving health outcomes among US
      parents and children at risk for obesity. Understanding the impact of nutrition claims on
      fruit drink purchases among Black and Latino parents is especially important given
      pre-existing disparities in early childhood SSB consumption and obesity. However, little is
      known about the relationship between nutrition claims and SSB purchases among racial-ethnic
      minorities. Thus, it is important to understand the effect of nutrition claims on
      racial-ethnic minority parents' purchases of fruit drinks. Another key research gap relates
      to the impact of warning labels for processed food among this population. Thus, in this study
      the investigators also aim to test warning labels on food/snack products as part of this
      study.

      Setting: The trial will take place in a virtual convenience store setting created for
      researchers to examine how store and product characteristics influence consumer purchases in
      a controlled but realistic environment.

      Recruitment: Participants will be recruited online through Kantar's currently available panel
      participants. Interested potential participants will complete a screener online, and if they
      are eligible, they will be redirected to the consent form.

      Informed consent: Participants will view an online consent form prior to participating in the
      study, They will acknowledge their consent by proceeding onto the study.

      Randomization: After acknowledging consent, participants will be randomized to one of 12
      versions of the store(see trial arms). Participants will have an equal chance to be
      randomized to one of the arms of the store.

      Assessment: Participants will enter the virtual convenience store and be given a shopping
      task to select 2 beverages (task 1) for their child age 1-5 who celebrated their birthday
      most recently. The participant will have to select between 100% grape juice and a
      grape-flavored fruit drink, and they will have to select between water and an apple-flavored
      fruit drink. After selecting two beverages, the participant will then be directed to complete
      a snack shopping task (task 2). After completing the two shopping tasks, the participant will
      be redirected to an online survey to complete. Participation in the study will last
      approximately 15-18 minutes.

      Trial arms: All participants will complete two shopping tasks where they have to (1) choose
      between a grape fruit drink and a 100% grape juice, and choose between an apple fruit drink
      and water, and (2) choose between a snack with a nutrient warning label or a snack with no
      warning label. There will be 4 versions of the fruit drinks that participants will be
      randomized to. They will see either a fruit drink with no claim (control) or a fruit drink
      with 1 of 3 claims ("No artificial sweeteners," "100% vitamin c daily value," "100% all
      natural"). For the snack with the nutrient warning label, participants will see either a
      control label (barcode) or a nutrient warning label (text or graphic).
    

Intervention name(s): Experimental Drink: Nutrition claim on fruit drinks; Control Drink: No nutrition claim; Experimental snack: Text warning; Experimental snack: Graphic warning; Control snack: barcode label
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Fruit drink contains a nutrition claim (task 1); Fruit drinks does not contain a nutrition claim (task 1); The snack contains a text warning (task 2); The snack contains a graphic warning (task 2); The snack contains a neutral barcode label (task 2)
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Prevention