Clinical trial NCT01990508: Randomized Trial of Financial Incentives to Reduce Sugar-sweetened Beverage Purchases by Low-income, Latino Families
Official title: Randomized Trial of Financial Incentives to Reduce Sugar-sweetened Beverage Purchases by Low-income, Latino Families
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Obesity Prevention
Keywords: sugar-sweetened beverages
traffic-light labels
financial incentives
low-income community
obesity prevention
Lead sponsor: Massachusetts General Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)
First posted: 2013-11-21
Enrollment: 216
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Approximately 15% of the US population is enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and 50% are children. Although the goal is to improve nutritional health, preliminary data suggest that enrollment in SNAP is associated with obesity and metabolic risks and that SNAP reimburses $4 billion annually for sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). This pilot project tests an innovative strategy to reduce purchase of non-nutritive, SSBs by low-income families with children by combining targeted point-of-purchase education with a randomized trial of financial incentives to discourage purchase of unhealthy beverages. The study will take place at a mid-size grocery store that is located in a low-income, Latino community and where 30% of purchases are made with SNAP. Targeted beverage education will be provided to all study subjects with a traffic-light system to identify healthy and unhealthy beverages at the point-of-purchase. Individual beverage purchases will be tracked by electronically stored cash register sales. Supplementary validation of beverage consumption will be assessed by 24 hour dietary recall. Aim 1 is to conduct a randomized controlled trial to compare purchase and consumption of SSBs by families assigned to a financial incentive to reduce purchase of SSBs with families assigned to control (no incentives). Aim 2 is to compare the purchase of SSBs by families in both arms during the study period when they are exposed to the traffic-light system to a baseline period prior to traffic-light education. Results of this project will provide pilot data for larger scale interventions to promote healthy choices among low-income families.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* purchase \>75% of groceries at targeted supermarket (regular customer)
* at least one child \<= 18 years old living at home

Exclusion Criteria:

* not fluent in Spanish or English
* no address or phone for contact

Primary outcomes:
measure: Purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages
timeFrame: 4 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages
timeFrame: 4 months
Other outcomes:
measure: Purchase of red-labeled beverages
timeFrame: 6 months
Locations:
city: Boston
country: United States
facility: Massachusetts General Hospital
state: Massachusetts
Study officials:
affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital
name: Anne N Thorndike, MD, MPH
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Franckle RL, Levy DE, Macias-Navarro L, Rimm EB, Thorndike AN. Traffic-light labels and financial incentives to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage purchases by low-income Latino families: a randomized controlled trial. Public Health Nutr. 2018 Jun;21(8):1426-1434. doi: 10.1017/S1368980018000319. Epub 2018 Mar 1.