Clinical trial NCT04243252: A Trial of Traffic Light Labeling With Behavioral Nudges and a Healthy Recipe Database to Increase Selection of Healthier Foods in Client-choice Food Pantries
Official title: Healthy Pantry Program Intervention Evaluation (HAPPIE)
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: TERMINATED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Food Selection
Keywords: food insecurity
Lead sponsor: Massachusetts General Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Greater Boston Food Bank
First posted: 2020-01-28
Enrollment: 3
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: This study is a pilot evaluation of the Healthy Pantry Program, a new behavioral economics-based training that allows pantry staff to learn how to implement nudges integrating traffic-light nutrition labeling and a healthy recipe database in the pantry environment. The hypothesis is that participation the Healthy Pantry Program will lead to increases in pantry purchases of healthy foods.

Detailed description: Food insecurity affects more than one in 10 Americans and is associated with poor nutrition and adverse health outcomes, including diabetes, hypertension, and mental health issues. Many food-insecure individuals use food pantries, which provide charitable food, to supplement household food needs. The emergence of client-choice food pantries, where individuals can select the foods they take home, provides a novel opportunity to intervene on the diets of food pantry clients.

This study evaluates the Healthy Pantry Program (HPP) in a sample of 10 food pantries in the greater Boston area. Pantries will be matched on baseline characteristics and randomized 1:1 into participation in HPP (intervention) or wait list (control). Outcomes data will be collected at the pantry and client level. The aims of the study are as follows:

Aim 1: To evaluate whether HPP is associated with increased healthy food purchases from the food bank by intervention food pantries compared to control food pantries.

Aim 2: To evaluate whether HPP is associated with increases in the availability of healthy food in intervention food pantries compared to control food pantries.

Aim 3: To evaluate whether HPP is associated with an increase in healthy food selection and dietary intake by clients of intervention food pantries compared to clients of control food pantries, using a cross-sectional sample of 400 food pantry clients at baseline and 400 food pantry clients at 6-month follow up.

Eligibility criteria: Pantry Inclusion Criteria:

* maximum client-choice (clients can choose all items that they take from pantry)
* operate at least once weekly
* affiliated with the Greater Boston Food Bank

Pantry Exclusion Criteria:

* not affiliated with the Greater Boston Food Bank
* operating less than once weekly
* not a maximum client-choice food pantry
* \>1 hr drive from Boston
* \<50 clients on average per open day

Client Inclusion Criteria (for cross-sectional surveys at baseline and 6-month follow up):

* ≥18 years old
* pantry client
* speaks English or Spanish

Client Exclusion Criteria:

* \<18 years old
* does not speak English or Spanish

Primary outcomes:
measure: Monthly change in proportion of green-labeled foods purchased by food pantries from the food bank
timeFrame: Collected from the electronic ordering system at baseline and prospectively each month for 9 months
measure: Monthly change in the Healthy Purchasing Score of foods purchased by food pantries from the food bank
timeFrame: Collected from the electronic ordering system at baseline and prospectively each month for 9 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in food availability at food pantries
timeFrame: Assessed at baseline and 6 months
measure: Change in healthier food selection by pantry clients
timeFrame: Assessed at baseline and 6 months
measure: Change in healthier food selection by pantry clients
timeFrame: Assessed at baseline and 6 months
measure: Change in self-reported fruit and vegetable intake of pantry clients
timeFrame: Assessed at baseline and 6 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Boston
country: United States
facility: Massachusetts General Hospital
state: Massachusetts
Study officials:
References: