Developing and Evaluating Product Messaging

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Purpose: To assess the impact of taxes, warnings, and a combination of taxes and warnings on US adults' decisions to purchase products that contain red meat in an online grocery store. Procedures (methods): Participants will be recruited from Prime Panels (an online panel research company). Following online consent, participants will be assigned to one of four trial arms: 1) Control (no warning and no tax), 2) Warnings (all products that contain red meat have a health warning and environmental warning), 3) Tax (30% tax on products that contain red meat), and 4) Combined warning and tax (all products that contain red meat will have the two warnings and a 30% tax). Then, participant will enter an online grocery store reflecting their assigned arm. The participant will be instructed to complete a shopping task in the online grocery store. After completing the shopping task, participants will be redirected to an online survey and answer a series of questions about the shopping task, labels (excluding tax and control groups), and taxes (excluding warning and control groups). Questions will also include standard demographic and health related variables.

Detailed Description
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Participants will be recruited from Prime Panels (an online panel research company). Following online consent, participants will be randomly assigned to one of four trial arms affecting the appearance of an online grocery store. Once in the online grocery store, participants will complete a shopping task. The participants will have 9 specified items to add to their shopping cart (1 pizza, 1 burrito, Burger patties [meat or vegetarian], Breakfast sausages [meat or vegetarian], 1 frozen individual meal, 1 loaf of bread, 1 sandwich filling [for example, ham, turkey, or peanut butter], 1 pack of tortillas, 1 taco filling [for example, steak, chicken, or beans]). Participants will be informed that they will not be spending any of their own money to complete the shopping task. After completing the shopping task, participants will be redirected to a survey. They will provide self-reported responses to survey questions (e.g. perceived healthfulness from eating red meat, perceived risk of cancer from eating red meat, thinking about the health/environmental harms of food products). Participants will also answer demographic and health related questions.

Official Title
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Developing and Evaluating Product Messaging

Conditions
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Cancer of Colon, Cancer of Rectum

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Control
* Other: Warning Labels
* Other: Tax
* Other: Combined Warning Labels and Tax


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: 18 years or older Consumes red meat at least once per week. Responsible for at least 50% of grocery shopping for the household. Lives in the United States Exclusion Criteria: Individuals who have participated in research studies from previous aims of this research.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Other: Control<br>Products that contain red meat will not have warning labels or an increase in price. | Other: Control<br>* Participants will complete a shopping task in the online grocery store, and the products that contain red meat will not have warning labels or a 30% increase in price.<br>|
| Experimental: Warning Labels<br>The warning labels are black octagons with white text that appear next to images of products that contain red meat. One label says WARNING: Eating red meat contributes to colon and rectal cancer and the other label says WARNING: Eating red meat harms the environment. | Other: Warning Labels<br>* While completing the shopping task in the online grocery store, the health and environmental warning labels will appear next to the image of every product that contains red meat.<br>|
| Experimental: Tax<br>The tax is a 30% increase in the price of products that contain red meat. | Other: Tax<br>* While completing the shopping task in the online grocery store, all products containing red meat will have a 30% increase in price.<br>|
| Experimental: Combined Warning Labels and Tax<br>The Combined Warning Labels and Tax arm features both the warning labels and tax. The warning labels are black octagons with white text that appear next to images of products that contain red meat. One label says WARNING: Eating red meat contributes to colon and rectal cancer and the other label says WARNING: Eating red meat harms the environment. The tax is a 30% increase in the price of red meat products. | Other: Combined Warning Labels and Tax<br>* While completing the shopping task in the online grocery store, all products containing red meat will have the health and environmental warning labels appear next to the product image and a 30% increase in price.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Count of Products That Contain Red Meat | The number of products in a participant's shopping basket that contain red meat. | At completion of  15 minute shopping task | 
| Percentage of Red Meat Containing Products | The percentage of products in a participant's shopping basket that contain red meat. | At completion of  15 minute shopping task | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Total Saturated Fat | Total grams of saturated fat of products in a participant's shopping basket. This will be calculated by adding together the total saturated fat from each product in the participant's shopping basket. Saturated fat for each product will come from the product's nutrition facts panel. All products in the store are real life products that have designated nutrition facts panels. | At completion of  15 minute shopping task | 
| Total Sodium | Total grams of sodium of products in a participant's shopping basket. This will be calculated by adding together the total sodium from each product in the participant's shopping basket. Sodium for each product will come from the product's nutrition facts panel. All products in the store are real life products that have designated nutrition facts panels. | At completion of  15 minute shopping task | 
| Total Calories | Total calories of products in a participant's shopping basket. This will be calculated by adding together the total calories from each product in the participant's shopping basket. Calories for each product will come from the product's nutrition facts panel. All products in the store are real life products that have designated nutrition facts panels. | At completion of  15 minute shopping task | 
| Perceived Healthfulness | Perceived healthfulness of eating red meat. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher perceived healthfulness of eating red meat. |  15 minutes post-test computer survey following the  15 minute shopping task | 
| Perceived Cancer Risk | Perceived risk of colon and rectal cancer from eating red meat. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher perceived risk of colon and rectal cancer from eating red meat. |  15 minutes post-test computer survey following the  15 minute shopping task | 
| Perceived Environmental Risk | Perceived risk of environmental harms from eating red meat. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher perceived risk of environmental harms from eating red meat. |  15 minutes post-test computer survey following the  15 minute shopping task | 
| Cognitive Elaboration (Health) | Thinking about the health harms of food products while completing the shopping task. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher amount of thinking about health harms of food products. |  15 minutes post-test computer survey following the  15 minute shopping task | 
| Cognitive Elaboration (Environment) | Thinking about the environmental harms of food products while completing the shopping task. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher amount of thinking about the environmental harms of food products. |  15 minutes post-test computer survey following the  15 minute shopping task | 
| Cognitive Elaboration (Price) | Thinking about the price of food products while completing the shopping task. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher amount of thinking about the price of food products. |  15 minutes post-test computer survey following the  15 minute shopping task | 
| Specific Perceived Healthfulness | Perceived healthfulness of specific red meat products (burgers, pepperoni pizza, and deli ham). Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with lower scores representing worse for health and higher scores representing better for health. |  15 minutes post-test computer survey following the  15 minute shopping task | 
| Specific Perceived Environmental Risk | Perceived environmental harm of specific red meat products (burgers, pepperoni pizza, and deli ham). Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with lower scores representing worse for the environment and higher scores representing better for the environment. |  15 minutes post-test computer survey following the  15 minute shopping task | 
| Perceived Cost of the Burger Product. | Perceived cost of the burger product. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with lower scores representing less expensive and higher scores representing more expensive. |  15 minutes post-test computer survey following the  15 minute shopping task | 
| Perceived Cost of the Pizza Product. | Perceived cost of the pizza product. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with lower scores representing less expensive and higher scores representing more expensive. |  15 minutes post-test computer survey following the  15 minute shopping task | 
| Perceived Cost of the Ham Product. | Perceived cost of the ham product. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with lower scores representing less expensive and higher scores representing more expensive. |  15 minutes post-test computer survey following the  15 minute shopping task | 
| Intention to Reduce | Intention to reduce red meat consumption in the next 30 days. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher intention to reduce red meat consumption in the next 30 days. |  15 minutes post-test computer survey following the  15 minute shopping task |