Diet, Healthy
Conditions
Brief summary
The goal of this experiment is to examine the effects of 4 types of front-of-package food labels among a sample of Latino adults. The main questions this experiment aims to answer are: What front-of-package label design is most effective in helping Latino and low English proficiency consumers identify healthier and less healthy food products? What front-of-package label design is most effective in helping Latino and low English proficiency consumers choose healthier food products? Additionally, this experiment also aims to answer the following question: Do the benefits of front-of-package label designs differ by English proficiency and parental status? Participants will be randomly assigned to 1 of 4 types of front-of-package label designs and view their assigned label design on 3 sets of products. Each set will display 3 similar products, each high in either 1, 2, or 3 nutrients of concern. For each set, participants will select the product that they believe to be the healthiest, least healthy, and the product that they would most want to consume. Researchers will compare results across label designs.
Detailed description
This study aims to determine which front-of-package label design is most effective at helping Latino consumers identify and choose healthier products, as well as explore whether the benefits of different front-of-package label designs differ by English proficiency. A Latino-focused panel company will recruit 4,000 US Latino adults of parental age (18-55 years), approximately 50% of whom will have limited English proficiency. In a between-subjects experiment, researchers will randomize participants to 1 of 4 types of front-of-package label designs: a numerical label, an interpretive text-only label, an interpretive label with a magnifying glass icon, or separated interpretive labels with a magnifying glass icon. Participants will view their assigned label design on 3 similar products (each product high in either 1, 2, or 3 nutrients of concern) and complete selection tasks. These tasks will be repeated 3 times, each time with a different type of product (i.e., frozen meals, frozen pizzas, and frozen desserts), with the products displayed in random order.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALGuideline Daily Amounts label
Labels that list the amount and percent of daily value of added sugar, sodium, or saturated fat, modeled after Guideline Daily Amounts labels.
BEHAVIORALInterpretive text-only label
Interpretive text-only labels that state when a product contains high amounts of added sugar, sodium, or saturated fat.
BEHAVIORALInterpretive magnifying glass icon label
Interpretive labels that state when a product contains high amounts of added sugar, sodium, or saturated fat, containing a magnifying glass icon.
Interpretive labels that state when a product contains high amounts of added sugar, sodium, or saturated fat, containing a magnifying glass icon. Each nutrient will be on a separate label.
Sponsors
Duke University
Stanford University
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 55 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Identifying as Latino or Hispanic * Ages 18-55 years old * Residing in US
Exclusion criteria
* Not identifying as Latino or Hispanic * Less than 18 or greater than 55 years old * Not residing in the United States
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Correct identification of healthiest product | During exposure to intervention (i.e., study stimuli), assessed during one-time online 10-minute survey. | Correct identification of healthiest product will be measured by survey. Responses will be coded in a dichotomous 0-1 range, where 1 indicates that the participant correctly identified the healthiest product and 0 indicates that the participant incorrectly identified one of the other two less healthy products as the healthiest product. |
| Correct identification of least healthy product | During exposure to intervention (i.e., study stimuli), assessed during one-time online 10-minute survey. | Correct identification of least healthy product will be measured by survey. Responses will be coded in a dichotomous 0-1 range, where 1 indicates that the participant correctly identified the least healthy product and 0 indicates that the participant incorrectly identified one of the other two healthier products as the least healthy product. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Correct identification of products high in nutrients | During exposure to intervention (i.e., study stimuli), assessed during one-time online 10-minute survey. | Correct identification of products high in nutrients (i.e., sugar, saturated fat, or sodium) will be measured by survey. Responses will be coded in a dichotomous 0-1 range, where 1 indicates that the participant correctly identified products that are high in a given nutrient and 0 indicates that the participant incorrectly identified products that are not high in a given nutrient as being high in such nutrient. |
| Selection of healthiest product for purchase | During exposure to intervention (i.e., study stimuli), assessed during one-time online 10-minute survey. | Selection of healthiest product for purchase will be measured by survey. Responses will be coded in a dichotomous 0-1 range, where 1 indicates that the participant chose the healthiest product and 0 indicates that the participants selected one of the other two less healthy products. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed