Clinical trial NCT06033911: Using FoodFlip© to Improve Food Choices Among Post-secondary Students
Official title: A Randomized Controlled Trial Using FoodFlip©, a Mobile Phone App, to Promote Healthier Diets and Food Choices Among Post-Secondary Students
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Healthy Diet
Keywords: front-of-package labeling
post-secondary foods
university foods
universities
mobile applications
mobile health
smartphone
Lead sponsor: University of Toronto
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2023-09-13
Enrollment: 133
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: 2-week long, single-blinded randomized controlled trial with a 3-parallel arm.
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: Canada passed mandatory front-of-package labelling (FOPL) regulations where pre-packaged food and beverage products that are high in sugar, saturated fat, and/or sodium are required to display a 'high-in' front-of-pack nutrition symbol (NS). FOPL is an effective tool to inform consumers about products that can harm health and help guide their purchasing decisions. However, as the regulations are limited to the pre-packaged food supply and do not apply to restaurants and other food services, little is known about the potential impact of the NS in such settings. Therefore, the objective of the present study is to investigate the impact of the Canadian FOPL (i.e. the 'high-in' NS) as delivered through a mobile health (mHealth) app in a setting currently not subject to regulations. The study will take place on a post-secondary campus (University of Toronto) hosting students, a population vulnerable to poor dietary choices, nutritional knowledge, and associated weight gain. A 2-week long, randomized controlled trial with a 3-parallel arm study design will be conducted to explore the effect of the 'high-in' NS on students' purchasing behaviours and nutritional knowledge. Eligible participants will be randomly allocated into one of 3 intervention groups: no App control; App control with no NS; App with NS. Questionnaires will be used to assess nutritional knowledge, and receipts will be used to analyze purchasing behaviour.

Detailed description: Poor diets increase the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), one of the major causes of disability and premature mortality in Canada. To help improve the diets of Canadians, Health Canada recently promulgated front-of-pack labelling (FOPL) regulations, which mandate pre-packaged foods and beverages meeting and/or exceeding the thresholds for nutrients of public health concern (i.e., sugars, saturated fat, and/or sodium) to display a 'high-in' front-of-pack nutrition symbol (NS). Moreover, previous studies have shown that FOPL can improve purchasing behaviours of consumers by decreasing purchases of nutrients of public health concern and/or foods carrying 'less healthy' FOPL and increase the nutritional knowledge of consumers. However, the FOPL regulations do not address restaurant foods, which are significant caloric contributors to the Canadian diet and are often high in nutrients of public health concern. Further, FOPL regulations do not address foods sold in other institutional settings, including schools, long-term care homes, and daycares. This policy gap may adversely affect the young adult population - a group notably vulnerable to poor diets and associated weight gain and poor nutritional knowledge. Emerging evidence suggests that FOPL can be an effective tool to communicate nutrition information to promote healthier food choices in food service settings; however, limited data exist on the effectiveness of FOPL on menu items available on post-secondary campuses to influence students' food purchasing behaviours on campus and to improve their nutritional knowledge. Furthermore, nutrition mobile health (mHealth) apps have been shown to have the potential to support behavioural change, improve nutrition knowledge, and develop skills to promote healthy eating behaviours through quick information-sharing capacity, customizable tracking abilities, and interactive components. The L'Abbe Lab has developed a mobile application, FoodFlip©, that provides nutrition information at the point of purchase to influence the decision-making process with high usability and functionality in grocery shopping settings. However, the application of FoodFlip© on purchasing behaviours in post-secondary campus settings is unknown. Therefore, the primary objective of the study is to investigate the effect of the Canadian FOPL (i.e., the 'high-in' nutrition symbol) on purchasing behaviours and nutritional knowledge of post-secondary students on campus, using the FoodFlip© App.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* ≥18 years of age
* enrolled at UofT
* have regular access to either iPhone or Android
* purchases at least one meal a day on campus
* able to speak and read English
* not currently pregnant or in lactation

Exclusion Criteria:

* \<18 years of age
* not enrolled at UofT
* does not have access to a smartphone
* does not purchase at least one meal a day on campus
* unable to speak and read English
* currently pregnant or in lactation

Primary outcomes:
measure: Purchasing Behaviors
timeFrame: 2 weeks
measure: Nutritional Knowledge
timeFrame: 2 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Toronto
country: Canada
facility: Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto
state: Ontario
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Toronto
name: Mary R L'Abbe, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: University of Toronto
name: Hayun Jeong, HBSc
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
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