Clinical trial NCT05499858: Evaluating Effectiveness of Spices and Herbs to Increase Vegetable Intake Among Military
Official title: Evaluating Effectiveness of Spices and Herbs to Increase Vegetable Intake Among Military
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Dietary Intake
Keywords: Military
Vegetable intake
Food photography
Lead sponsor: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Sponsor class: FED
Collaborators: name: University of Maryland, Baltimore
name: Nova Institute for Health
name: Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine
name: Pennington Biomedical Research Center
name: McCormick Science Institute
First posted: 2022-08-12
Enrollment: 400
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: "The goal of this study is to evaluate whether the addition of spices and herbs to the vegetables served to military personnel on a large military base can increase vegetable intake as compared to typical vegetable offerings without spices and herbs.

A two-phase intervention will be conducted on base at Naval Station Activity Bethesda (NSAB) to evaluate whether the addition of spices and herbs to vegetable dishes can increase vegetable intake amongst military service members.

Phase I will involve extensive engagement with key stakeholders involved in current vegetable consumption at NSAB, including military service members, staff dietitians, the health promotion specialist on base, barracks managers, military culinary specialist, unit leaders, morale welfare and recreations/single sailor program leaders, base senior enlisted leaders, and the base commander. Questionnaires will be administered evaluating current barriers to vegetable intake at NSAB, familiarity with and liking of a variety of spices and herbs, and sensory testing of several vegetables with and without spices and herbs. The recipes in the vegetable sensory testing comparisons will be identical other than spices and herbs content.

Phase II will involve will focus upon the direct measurement of vegetable intake (primary outcome) and vegetable linking (secondary outcome) among active-duty service members with spices and herbs and without spices and herbs. The vegetables will be provided as part of an entire meal on a "grab and go" plate. The other foods in the meal (proteins, starches, etc.) accompanying the vegetables will be kept consistently paired to vegetable recipes to minimize confounding. Vegetable intake will be assessed via cell phone pictures and liking will be assessed by a single 5-point Likert scale question."


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Junior Service Member (E1-E4 or O1-O3)
* Read and write English

Exclusion Criteria:

* Anyone under 18 years of age
* Anyone not in the U.S. military

Primary outcomes:
measure: Vegetable consumption
timeFrame: Volunteers will be provided with a series of heat and serve meal kits over approximately 2 month time period.
measure: Phase I - Primary Outcome: United States Military - Menu Item Survey
timeFrame: Volunteers will be provided with a series of 8 recipes to evaluate over the course of a single taste testing session through study completion, an average of 1 year.
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Bethesda
country: United States
facility: Naval Support Activity Bethesda
state: Maryland
Study officials:
affiliation: Assistant Professor
name: Chris D'Adamo, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: D'Adamo CR, McArdle PF, Balick L, Peisach E, Ferguson T, Diehl A, Bustad K, Bowden B, Pierce BA, Berman BM. Spice MyPlate: Nutrition Education Focusing Upon Spices and Herbs Improved Diet Quality and Attitudes Among Urban High School Students. Am J Health Promot. 2016 May;30(5):346-56. doi: 10.1177/0890117116646333.
citation: Pierce B, Bowden B, McCullagh M, Diehl A, Chissell Z, Rodriguez R, Berman BM, D Adamo CR. A Summer Health Program for African-American High School Students in Baltimore, Maryland: Community Partnership for Integrative Health. Explore (NY). 2017 May-Jun;13(3):186-197. doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2017.02.002. Epub 2017 Feb 24.
citation: D'Adamo CR, Parker EA, McArdle PF, Trilling A, Bowden B, Bahr-Robertson MK, Keller KL, Berman BM. The addition of spices and herbs to vegetables in the National School Lunch Program increased vegetable intake at an urban, economically-underserved, and predominantly African-American high school. Food Qual Prefer. 2021 Mar;88:104076. doi: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.104076. Epub 2020 Sep 1.