Women's Responses to Adjusted Product Placement and Its Effects on Diet - 1 (WRAPPED1)
Condition: Diet Modification
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This research project aims to help address a gap in understanding about the
      micro-environmental determinants of diet by exploring whether improving the placement of
      fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables and removing temptations of confectionary at checkouts
      in discount supermarkets influences the dietary behaviours of women aged 18-45 years and
      whether it is cost effective.
    

Detailed description: 
      This study is a natural experiment with a prospective cluster controlled design. The
      intervention includes creating a new fresh fruit and vegetable section at the store entrance,
      placing frozen fruit and vegetable in the first aisle and removing confectionery from
      checkouts; it will be implemented continuously for 6 months in discount supermarkets.

      The control condition is provision of a limited range of fresh fruit and vegetables, all
      placed at the back of the store, frozen vegetables in a middle aisle and confectionery sold
      at checkouts. Control and intervention stores will be located across England to improve
      generalizability of the sample. Each control store will be matched to an intervention store
      on i) sales profile, ii) customer profile and iii) neighbourhood deprivation (IMD deciles).
      Control stores will be located at least 50 miles from an intervention store to avoid
      contamination.

      Women customers aged 18-45 years with a store loyalty card, who regularly shop at one of 3
      intervention or 3 matched-control stores in England will be invited to participate. Women
      will be recruited via email, letter, SMS, shopping receipt note, Facebook advertisement, and
      in-store approach. Participants will contact the research team via text, email or Freephone
      and will be consented by phone after eligibility is assessed. Participants will be asked to
      complete four telephone surveys (baseline and 1, 3 and 6 months post intervention
      commencement) and will be offered 3x £10 Love2Shop vouchers that will be sent after
      completion of the baseline, 3 and 6 month surveys. A secure system to transfer store and
      participant loyalty card sales data has been established and confidentiality upheld through
      the use of study identification numbers.

      Economic evaluation will be conducted from individual and retailer perspectives. Participant
      surveys will collect data about food expenditure, and travel costs to and from supermarkets
      that will be supplemented by loyalty card data. Refurbishment and ongoing costs, plus impact
      on sales will be estimated.

      A process evaluation will be conducted to monitor intervention implementation (in-store
      surveys), mechanisms of impact (interviews with a sub-sample of supermarket staff and
      participants) and context (analysis of grocery shopping habits - location and frequency of
      different stores).
    

Intervention name(s): Product placement intervention; Sham comparator
Intervention type(s): Other; Other
Intervention description(s): The intervention includes 3 components: i) creation of a new fresh fruit and vegetable section and island in the first aisle; ii) placing frozen fruit and vegetables in the first aisle and iii) removal of all cakes, confectionary and sugar sweetened beverages from checkouts (replaced with non-food items, fruit and bottled water).; The control condition is provision of a limited range of fresh fruit and vegetables, all placed at the back of the store, frozen vegetables in a middle aisle and confectionery sold at checkouts.
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: WRAPPED1 is a natural experiment with a prospective matched controlled cluster design
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: public health; dietary inequalities; environment design