Sustainable Eating for a Healthy Tomorrow - Effectiveness of Digital Nutrition Workshops to Implement the Planetary Health Diet for Hospital Employees

Summary

The investigators will explore the effect of digital media on communicating a planetary diet and invite participants to change dietary habits. Standardized questionnaires, physical examinations, and qualitative interviews will be used to obtain data on the effectiveness of the intervention. Once initial assessments are complete, a blinded researcher will randomly assign participants to one of two groups, without influence from either participants or study coordinators.

Both groups will participate in a nutrition course over a 13-week period, followed by a booster session five months after randomization, and will be encouraged to practice the methods at home. One group will receive intensive support, including a digital training program (around 2 hours per week), while the other group will receive digital information and sustainable recipes with limited support (about 30 minutes per week).

Conditions

• Personnel, Hospital
• Healthy Volunteers

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Digital collection of recipes

The digital recipe collection is created for private use. This collection contains recipes for every meal of the day to ensure a Planetary Health Diet throughout the day. This includes digital weekly plans with corresponding dishes, including shopping lists, to simplify implementation in everyday life. This enables participants to make quick meal choices and simplify their shopping. Employees are encouraged to use this digital recipe collection to prepare their meals over a defined period of time. In addition, the kitchen management of the university hospital will be asked to assist with the creation of the recipes. The project benefits from the experience of the kitchen staff. Popular recipes can be used across projects.

BEHAVIORAL

E-Mail-Newsletter

The e-mail newsletter contains information on the Planetary Health Diet (background, urgency, goals, etc.). Regular contact by e-mail enables a fast, uncomplicated and personal exchange with the participants, uncomplicated and personal exchange with the participants. The e-mail support encourages participants to actively engage with the topic. The newsletter is supplemented by instructional kitchen videos (one person cooks a recipe from the recipe collection), checklists (e.g. "How sustainable am I already acting?"), tasks (e.g. three possible measures for a more sustainable diet) or food information (e.g. seasonal plan for fruit and vegetables). This provides participants with important information at regular intervals and ensures compliance.

BEHAVIORAL

digital/hybrid teaching kitchen

Recipes, cooking techniques, shopping tips and recommendations for implementing the Planetary Health Diet are taught in the digital/hybrid teaching kitchen. The focus here is on fun, good taste and interesting experiences. A shared experience can be created through such cooking events. The teaching kitchen events can be supplemented by the participation of the kitchen management in order to benefit from their special cooking skills and wealth of experience. The positive aspect of the digital training kitchen is the easy access to information, as this does not have to be read, but is conveyed visually.

BEHAVIORAL

Digital events (digital cafés)

Events are planned that will be set up via the "digital café" for in-depth discussions and exchanges about the content. Fixed dates are planned at which the study participants can meet digitally. In this protected setting, the topics of the study will be discussed in a convivial atmosphere. The personal exchange enables a deeper examination of the topic. The online events give participants the opportunity to interact directly with the study coordinators and other participants in order to effectively and sustainably change the participants' perception and awareness of sustainable nutrition through the various intervention points.

BEHAVIORAL

Social-Media

A dedicated Instagram account for this project will be created for the center, where valuable content on the Planetary Health Diet will be shared regularly. The test subjects can also use this platform to exchange information.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Universität Duisburg-Essen

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-10-07

Primary Completion

2025-08-12

Completion

2025-10-29

Countries

• Germany

Study Locations