Obesity, Overconsumption
Conditions
Keywords
Nutri-score, Food choice, Delivery app, out-of-home food
Brief summary
Participants will be asked to make hypothetical food choices in an online simulation study of an OOH delivery app. This study will be a three-arm randomised controlled design, with intervention type as the 3-level grouping variable (Nutri-score labelling vs. Nutri-score labelling with educational intervention vs. no labelling).
Interventions
BEHAVIORALLabelling condition - Calorie labelling
Participants will be asked to choose a meal through a virtual delivery app where four outlets are presented. Participants will be provided with a menu with calorie labelling.
BEHAVIORALLabelling condition - Nutri-score labelling
Participants will be asked to choose a meal through a virtual delivery app where four outlets are presented. Participants will be given menus with calorie and Nutri-score labelling.
BEHAVIORALLabelling condition: Nutri-score labelling + educational intervention
Participants will be asked to choose a meal through a virtual delivery app where four outlets are presented. Participants will be given menus with calorie and Nutri-score labelling. Prior to selecting their meal, participants will be asked to read an article about Nutri-score.
Sponsors
University of Liverpool
Aston University
University of Bath
University of Exeter
Liverpool John Moores University
King's College London
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Investigator)
Masking description
To attempt to reduce the likelihood of aim guessing, participants will be recruited to a study described as 'consumer behaviour on food delivery platforms'. Participants will be randomly allocated upon beginning the study, so researchers will be unaware of assigned condition.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Aged 18+ * Frequent user of food delivery platforms (at least once a month on average) * Can complete the study on a laptop or desktop
Exclusion criteria
* Current or previous diagnosis of an eating disorder * Currently on appetite supressing medication * No dietary restrictions including dairy free, sugar free, gluten free (vegetarians and vegans are eligible to participate)
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Healthiness of selected meal | Day 1 of 1: Food orders (item names, energy content, UK Nutrient Profiling Model scores) will be recorded immediately after the baseline questionnaire. The recorded information will be used to calculate weighted NPM scores. | In line with published research into Nutri-score, the investigators will assess the healthiness of meals using UK Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM) scores(16). These scores are calculated in a similar way to Nutri-score, whereby the total value of positive nutrients is subtracted from the total value of negative nutrients. Lower scores represent healthier items. Scores range from -15 (healthiest) to 40 (least healthy). To account for the likely event of multiple items being selected to form a meal, the investigators will calculate a mean NPM score, weighted by the energy content of individual food items. This will be done using the 'weighted.mean'(37) function in R grouped by participant so the weights are specific to individual orders. The following code will be used for this: weighted\_ppt\<-combine %\>% group\_by(ppt) %\>% summarise(score = weighted.mean(nutriscore, meal\_kcal)) |
| Nutri-score label of selected food items | Day 1 of 1: Food orders (item names, NS values) will be recorded immediately after the baseline questionnaire when participants select their food orders. | Nutri-score values of each menu item were calculated prior to creating the online ordering platform. To calculate overall scores, the total value of positive nutrients is subtracted from the total value of negative nutrients. Lower scores represent healthier items. Thresholds are used to dictate the Nutri-score value assigned to items, with A (healthiest) to E (least healthy) When participants complete the food choice task, the Nutri-score labels (A-E) of each item selected by participants will be recorded by the online platform. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Energy content of all food ordered | Day 1 of 1: The energy content selected by participants will be recorded immediately after the baseline questionnaire when participants select their food orders. | The total energy content (kcal) of food items selected by participants will be recorded by the online study platform. Nutritional information to inform this was taken from the food outlet websites. |
Countries
United Kingdom
Contacts
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOREric Robinson
University of Liverpool
Outcome results
None listed