Clinical trial NCT06260176: Vending Labeling Sales and Intercepts Study
Official title: A Large Scale Long-term Randomized Trial of Nutrition Labeling Interventions
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Food Preferences
Obesity
Weight Gain
Keywords: food labeling
sugar-sweetened beverages
eating
drinking
choice behavior
Lead sponsor: University of Pennsylvania
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
First posted: 2024-02-15
Enrollment: 1065
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Machine locations were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 front-of-package message arms, stratified by baseline machine sales (high/low) and type of machine location (correctional facilities, courts/offices, large offices, police/fire, recreation centers/libraries/other) with equal probability. The investigators first randomized vending locations (e.g., floors) with beverage machines so that all machines on the same floor displayed the same label. They then randomized the remaining "solo" snack locations. Monthly sales data provided by the City's vending contractor indicated consumer choices. Research assistants also asked a subset of consumers (N=1,065) about their purchases. Intercepts were not allowed in the courts/offices location type and were not conducted at correctional facilities with low traffic. The aim was to collect 10 intercepts per machine visited, distributed over the entire study period, however the study was cut short in March 2020 by the Covid pandemic.
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The aim of this study is to compare the impact of 4 different types of front of package (FOP) food and beverage messages: 1) green labels on healthy foods, 2) red/yellow/green labels on less healthy/moderately healthy/healthy foods, 3) physical activity calorie equivalent labels, and 4) posters reminding consumers of the sweetened beverage tax on consumers' beverage and snack selections.

Detailed description: This project involves a randomized field experiment. The investigators worked with the vending contractor for the City of Philadelphia to randomize vending machine locations (covering \~260 beverage and snack machines) to one of the four different message conditions: 1) single green traffic light labels (on healthy foods); 2) multiple traffic light labels (red traffic light labels applied to less healthy foods, yellow applied to moderately healthy foods, and green on healthy foods); 3) physical activity labels (calorie content displayed in terms of physical activity equivalents); 4) posters reminding consumers of the Philadelphia sweetened beverage tax and encouraging healthier choices. The City's vending machine contractors provided monthly aggregated sales data from each machine for analysis. Customer intercepts were also collected at the point of sale, after customers completed their purchase, to evaluate factors that moderate message influence. They were asked to answer questions about their perceptions of the different labels.

Eligibility criteria: Sales data include all purchases at the machine regardless of customer demographics.

Customer purchase assessment data were collected from:

Inclusion Criteria:

* Any person aged 18 or older making a purchase from the vending machines included in this intervention will be asked to participate in this study.

Exclusion Criteria:

* People who indicate they have already taken the survey are not eligible to take the survey again.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Percentage of beverages sold with calories per month
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
measure: Calories sold from beverages per month, if beverages with calories sold
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
measure: Calories sold from snacks per month
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
measure: Likelihood of selecting a healthy beverage
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
measure: Likelihood of selecting a moderately healthy beverage
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
measure: Likelihood of selecting a less healthy beverage
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
measure: Likelihood of selecting a healthy snack
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
measure: Likelihood of selecting a moderately healthy snack
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
measure: Likelihood of selecting a less healthy snack
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
measure: Total beverage units sold per month per machine.
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
measure: Total snack units sold per month per machine
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Total revenue per month per beverage machine
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
measure: Total revenue per month per snack machine
timeFrame: Every month, for 13 months
measure: Total calories sold per customer trip
timeFrame: 5-minute survey
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Philadelphia
country: United States
facility: University of Pennsylvania
state: Pennsylvania
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Pennsylvania
name: Christina A Roberto
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: