The use of food swaps to encourage healthier online food choices
| ISRCTN | ISRCTN80519674 |
|---|---|
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN80519674 |
- Submission date
- 02/09/2021
- Registration date
- 02/09/2021
- Last edited
- 09/09/2022
- Recruitment status
- No longer recruiting
- Overall study status
- Completed
- Condition category
- Other
Plain English summary of protocol
Background and study aims
Nowadays, increasingly more people face health issues and the online store environment offers opportunities to decrease those health issues by promoting healthy food choices. This study assesses the effect of a swap offer, Nutri-Score labelling, and a descriptive norm message on the nutrient profiling (NP) score of food choices in an online food basket.
Who can participate?
Everyone older than 18 years and currently living in the Netherlands.
What does the study involve?
Completing one questionnaire on grocery choices and several background questions.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
Benefits include enhanced knowledge and understanding of choosing healthy groceries in the online store environment. There are no foreseen risks of this study.
Where is the study run from?
Wageningen University (Netherlands)
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
April 2020 to May 2020
Who is funding the study?
Wageningen School of Social Sciences (WASS) from Wageningen University & Research and The Dutch 4TU Federation through the Pride and Prejudice project.
Who is the main contact?
Laura Jansen, laura1.jansen@wur.nl
Contact information
Scientific
Hollandseweg 1
Wageningen
6707KN
Netherlands
 ORCID ID |
0000-0002-2058-3536 |
|---|---|
| Phone | +31 317 489 876 |
| laura1.jansen@wur.nl |
Study information
| Study design | Single centre interventional double-blinded randomized controlled trial |
|---|---|
| Primary study design | Interventional |
| Secondary study design | Randomised controlled trial |
| Study setting(s) | Internet/virtual |
| Study type | Other |
| Participant information sheet | 40358 PIS.docx |
| Scientific title | The use of food swaps, Nutri-Score labelling and a norm message to encourage healthier online food choices among grocery shoppers |
| Study acronym | SWAP |
| Study objectives | Providing a swap offer, Nutri-Score label or a descriptive norm message will reduce the Nutrient Profiling (NP) score of food choices. Moreover, the study explores whether the effect of the interventions on NP score is mediated by ease of identifying the healthy food option and situational motivation to choose healthy, as well as whether the effect is moderated by a person's health interest. |
| Ethics approval(s) | Approved 21/04/2020, Social Sciences Ethics Committee (SEC, Hollandseweg 1, 6706KN Wageningen, The Netherlands; +31 (0)317 484 334; esther.roquas@wur.nl), ref: none |
| Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied | Improvement of healthiness score of groceries purchased |
| Intervention | An online questionnaire will be hosted via Qualtrics. A link will take participants to the survey where they can read the Participant Information Sheet, providing their agreement/consent to participate and answer the questions. The questionnaire is anonymous and will take approximately 5 to 10 minutes to complete. The questionnaire includes basic background data (age, gender, country of living, education and household composition) and a series of questions where participants will be asked to choose their preferred grocery item. Respondents will be shown six products for four different categories (breakfast cereals, muesli bars, crackers and pizza) separately. Interventions are Nutri-Score labelling, a swap offer and a norm message. Nutri-Score label is shown by displaying the corresponding Nutri-Score label alongside each product. In the swap offer condition, participants receive an alternative, healthier product recommendation if they do not choose the healthiest option from the product assortment. In the norm message condition, a norm about grocery shopping habits of Dutch consumers will be shown. Randomization will be on a 1:1:1:1:1:1:1:1 basis, using computerized random number generation. Intervention allocation will be concealed from researchers until after completion of the experiment, as participants are automatically randomized without human involvement. |
| Intervention type | Behavioural |
| Primary outcome measure | Combined nutrient profiling score is measured using the summated NP score of the chosen products of each of the four categories. The summated NP score ranges from -6 to +58. The lower the score, the better the product healthfulness. Measured at a single time point. |
| Secondary outcome measures | There are no secondary outcome measures |
| Overall study start date | 01/04/2020 |
| Completion date | 16/05/2020 |
Eligibility
| Participant type(s) | All |
|---|---|
| Age group | Adult |
| Lower age limit | 18 Years |
| Sex | Both |
| Target number of participants | 550 |
| Total final enrolment | 550 |
| Key inclusion criteria | Participants are eligible if they live in the Netherlands, are older than 18 years, are able to read Dutch, and are willing to provide information. |
| Key exclusion criteria | Individuals who are aged 18 years or younger and not able to read Dutch. |
| Date of first enrolment | 08/05/2020 |
| Date of final enrolment | 16/05/2020 |
Locations
Countries of recruitment
- Netherlands
Study participating centre
Netherlands
Sponsor information
University/education
Droevendaalsesteeg 4
Wageningen
6708 PB
Netherlands
| Phone | +31 (0)317 480 100 |
|---|---|
| Ellen.vanloo@wur.nl | |
| Website | https://www.wur.nl/ |
"ROR" |
https://ror.org/04qw24q55 |
Funders
Funder type
University/education
No information available
No information available
Results and Publications
| Intention to publish date | 01/12/2021 |
|---|---|
| Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share | No |
| IPD sharing plan summary | Stored in repository |
| Publication and dissemination plan | Planned publication in a high-impact peer-reviewed journal |
| IPD sharing plan | The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study will be stored in a publically available repository. Data will be available on Zenodo after publication; Laura Jansen, Ellen Van Loo, & Ellen van Kleef. (2020). The use of food swaps to encourage healthier online food choices [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4309693 The raw dataset of the manuscript will be shared here and this data will become available after publication. Publication on Zenodo is without an end date so it will be published indefinitely. Consent from participants was obtained and the data is anonymous, so the data will be available without any restriction on data access. The data will be publicly available on Zenodo once the manuscript is published. |
Study outputs
| Output type | Details | Date created | Date added | Peer reviewed? | Patient-facing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participant information sheet | 02/09/2021 | No | Yes | ||
| Results article | 04/12/2021 | 06/12/2021 | Yes | No | |
| Protocol file | 09/09/2022 | 09/09/2022 | No | No |
Additional files
Editorial Notes
09/09/2022: Protocol file uploaded.
06/12/2021: Publication reference added.
03/09/2021: Internal review.
02/09/2021: Trial's existence confirmed by Social Sciences Ethics Committee.
