You Are What You Eat: A Randomised Controlled Trial of an Appearance-based Dietary Intervention

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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This study investigated whether illustration of the facial appearance benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption is able to motivate increased intake of this food group. The investigators hypothesize that individuals witnessing illustrations of the impact of a healthy diet will exhibit improvements in diet relative to a control group receiving only information on the health-benefits of this food group.

Conditions
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Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Information-only
* Behavioral: Generic appearance intervention
* Behavioral: Personalised appearance intervention


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Student or staff member at University of St Andrews Has access to email account to receive link to weekly online questionnaire. Exclusion Criteria: Exited study before completion Unable to make dietary changes due to a medical condition

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 61 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Information-only<br>Selected pages from the British National Health Service (NHS) information booklets [5 A Day, Just Eat More (fruit & veg); pages i, ii, 12-15, 20 & 21] and [5 A Day, Just Eat More (fruit & veg): What's it all about?; pages i-ii)] were provided to all participants on completion of baseline questionnaires. The pages provided information on recommended portion sizes, meal planning, health benefits and answered frequently asked diet-related questions | Behavioral: Information-only<br>* Selected pages from the British National Health Service (NHS) information booklets [5 A Day, Just Eat More (fruit & veg); pages i, ii, 12-15, 20 & 21] and [5 A Day, Just Eat More (fruit & veg): What's it all about?; pages i-ii)] were provided to all participants on completion of baseline questionnaires. The pages provided information on recommended portion sizes, meal planning, health benefits and answered frequently asked diet-related questions<br>|
| Experimental: Generic-appearance intervention<br>Participants in the generic appearance intervention group received images to illustrate the impact of fruit and vegetable consumption on skin appearance. Participants in this group were presented with gender congruent stimuli, constructed by averaging the facial shape and colour of four male/female faces. Participants viewed the gender-congruent set of the resulting stimuli in two forms. Firstly, after completion of baseline questionnaires, images were displayed on a computer monitor. Participants were instructed to select what they perceived as the healthiest face colour, which was recorded by the computer program over two trials. Participants in this group also received a take-home photo quality leaflet to further illustrate the effect of fruit and vegetable consumption on skin colour. | Behavioral: Generic appearance intervention<br>* Participants in the generic appearance intervention group received images to illustrate the impact of fruit and vegetable consumption on skin appearance. Participants in this group were presented with gender congruent stimuli, constructed by averaging the facial shape and colour of four male/female faces. Participants viewed the gender-congruent set of the resulting stimuli in two forms. Firstly, after completion of baseline questionnaires, images were displayed on a computer monitor. Participants were instructed to select what they perceived as the healthiest face colour, which was recorded by the computer program over two trials. Participants in this group also received a take-home photo quality leaflet to further illustrate the effect of fruit and vegetable consumption on skin colour.<br>|
| Experimental: Personalised appearance intervention<br>Participants in this group received stimuli manipulated in identical ways to that received by the generic appearance-intervention group, except the illustrations were performed upon images of the participant's own face. | Behavioral: Personalised appearance intervention<br>* Participants in this group received stimuli manipulated in identical ways to that received by the generic appearance-intervention group, except the illustrations were performed upon images of the participant's own face.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Fruit and vegetable consumption | Participants completed a computerised food frequency questionnaire to establish fruit and vegetable consumption. Participants were asked to retrospectively report consumption frequency of fruit juice, fruit, vegetable juice, salad, vegetable soup and vegetable items over the past seven days. Participants reported consumption of standard portion sizes and were provided with NHS illustrations of portion size guidelines to assist estimations. | up to 10 weeks | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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fruit, vegetables, appearance, skin color, carotenoids, diet