Clinical trial NCT03337633: Effects of Restaurant Menu Design on Food Ordering Outcomes
Official title: Effects of Menu Design on Psychophysiological Measures of Cognitive Load and Food Ordering Outcomes
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Food Preferences
Keywords: cognitive load
galvanic skin response
meal size
kilocalories
menu design
Lead sponsor: University of Alabama at Birmingham
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Texas Tech University
First posted: 2017-11-09
Enrollment: 61
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 19
Maximum age (years): 35
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Parallel arm randomized controlled trial
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: High cognitive load activities can influence energy intake from food. It is unknown how restaurant menu designs may affect patrons in terms of cognitive demand and subsequent ordering of food.Objective: Our objective was to develop and experimentally test menu designs that differ in cognitive load to test the subjective and objective stress measures on food ordering.

Detailed description: For the first experiment, a parallel randomized trial of healthy young adults (n= 30) was conducted to compare ordering from one of two menu designs (easy - E, hard - H) developed in a prior pilot study. In the second experiment, restrained eaters were specifically recruited and asked to fast before the experiment to determine the influence of cognitive load of menus on energy ordered (n=31). Galvanic skin response was used as an objective proxy for relative cognitive load, and questionnaires were used to assess perceptions of the menus. The main outcomes were the number of items ordered and total energy of the items ordered (in kilocalories).

Eligibility criteria: Experiment 1

Inclusion Criteria:

* Normal vision or corrective lenses
* Normal hearing or a hearing aid
* A moderate level of English proficiency or greater
* Free from current food restrictions

Exclusion Criteria:

* Unwilling/uninterested in participation
* Currently taking any β-blocker medications
* Any serious skin conditions on the hands (because of galvanic skin sensors worn for the protocol)

Experiment 2

Inclusion Criteria:

* Normal vision or corrective lenses
* Normal hearing or a hearing aid
* A moderate level of English proficiency or greater
* Free from current food restrictions
* Qualifying as a restrained eater by the Cognitive Restraint scale on the Eating Inventory (score of 6 for men and 10 for women)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Unwilling/uninterested in participation
* Currently taking any β-blocker medications
* Any serious skin conditions on the hands (because of galvanic skin sensors worn for the protocol)

Primary outcomes:
measure: Total Number of Items Ordered
timeFrame: During the 5-minute menu ordering task
measure: Total Energy of Items ordered
timeFrame: During the 5-minute menu ordering task
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Subjective ratings of difficulty of using assigned menu to order a meal
timeFrame: Immediately (1 minute) following the 5-minute menu ordering period
measure: Galvanic Skin Response
timeFrame: During the 5-minute menu ordering task
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham, Asst. Professor, Dept of Health Behavior
name: Kathryn A Kaiser, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: