Randomized Trial of Healthy Eating Interventions

Summary

Interventions to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables to date have shown promise, but many have limited public health impact due to the lack of scalability of their designs. The investigators propose to examine the effectiveness and feasibility of an intervention for promoting increased consumption of fruits and vegetables by incentivizing their purchase. Collaborating with UpLift Solutions, the investigators will enroll shoppers in this Randomized Clinical Trial using the research infrastructure called the Way to Health platform. (called the Way to Health platform, and approved as a Prime protocol by the IRB as reference # 811860).

Hypothesis: providing patients with financial incentives can promote healthier behaviors (e.g.: eating healthier).

Conditions

• Nutrition Therapy

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Information provision intervention

Participant will have access to weekly data showing how much produce they are purchasing. No incentives will be given under this arm. They will also receiving information on weekly purchases, online resources, and weekly reminders on eating healthy.

BEHAVIORAL

information provision + flat incentive

Participants will earn back 15% of what they spent on groceries for the week if they spend at least 15% of their total grocery budget on fresh produce in addition to receiving the same treatment as the IP arm. They will also receiving information on weekly purchases, online resources, and weekly reminders on eating healthy.

BEHAVIORAL

Information provision + tiered incentive

In addition to receiving information on weekly purchases, online resources, and weekly reminders on eating healthy the participants assigned to the IP + tiered incentive group would earn back increasing percentages of their grocery spending for meeting increasing targets of produce consumption.

BEHAVIORAL

Usual Care

Participants will have access through the Way to Health portal to web-based educational materials and recipes related to healthy eating. They will be informed they will receive up to $50 in reimbursements for completing the surveys that are part of the Way To Eat program as follows: $20 for completing the intake questionnaire and weigh-in and $30 reimbursements for completing the exit questionnaire and weigh-in.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Aging (NIA)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Pennsylvania

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Scott D Halpern, MD, Ph.D. · University of Pennsylvania

• Kathryn A Saulsgiver, MS, PhD · University of Pennsylvania

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2011-10-31

Primary Completion

2012-09-30

Completion

2012-09-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations