Clinical trial NCT03296878: Food-for-Families: Experimental Grocery Store Study
Official title: Food-for-Families: Relationship Between Income, Obesity, and Food Purchasing Using an Experimental Grocery Store Study
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Overweight
Obesity
Keywords: low income
Lead sponsor: USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
Sponsor class: FED
First posted: 2017-09-28
Enrollment: 80
Sex: FEMALE
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: FACTORIAL
Intervention model description: This study will utilize a three factor design, with one between-subject factor and two within-subject factors. The between-subject factor is participation in a federal food assistance program. The within-subject factors are price change condition and price change scenario.
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: This is a study about how the price of foods affects buying choices at the grocery store. The price of foods can have a big impact on what people choose to buy and prices change over time. This study is being done to see how changes in food prices affect what mothers choose for their families.

Detailed description: It is well known that the price of a given food affects the amount of that item individuals will purchase. Yet little is known about how specific groups, such as obese/overweight individuals and those with lower incomes, change their food purchasing decisions depending on food price changes. Evidence shows that these groups have lower quality diets and worse health outcomes than their normal weight and higher income counterparts. Therefore, it is important to gain a better understanding of how food price changes affect purchasing decisions among these population groups in order to develop targeted nutrition interventions to improve their diet quality. To investigate this, the researchers will create a laboratory-based grocery store, in which pictures of foods will be used in lieu of actual foods. Food prices will be indicated on each picture. The participants will be given play money and a budget, and asked to "purchase" foods in the mock grocery store. The price of foods will be changed throughout the study to investigate how participants change their purchasing decisions based on these price changes.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Have at least one child up to 18 years of age residing in the household
* Primary grocery shopper for the household
* No health conditions or food practices that substantially limit food choice
* Not currently pregnant
* Consent to the study design

Exclusion Criteria:

* Male
* \< 18 years of age
* Not a mother, or children not living with subject in their household
* No children below the age of 18 years of age
* Not the primary grocery shopper for their household
* Health conditions or food practices that substantially limit food choice
* Currently pregnant

Primary outcomes:
measure: Price elasticity of eggs
timeFrame: Baseline
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Nutrient density of purchased foods
timeFrame: Baseline
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Grand Forks
country: United States
facility: USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
state: North Dakota
Study officials:
affiliation: USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center
name: James Roemmich, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: