NCT01436097

Randomized Trial of Healthy Eating Interventions

Financial Incentives for Healthy Eating: A Randomized Pilot Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 42 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

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).

Detailed description

This is a pilot study under the IRB-approved umbrella protocol number 811698 named Penn-CMU Roybal Center on Behavioral Economics and Health. 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. Many interventions only provided information on what constitutes healthier eating or provided discounts on specific products.Other interventions were limited in generalizability due to utilization of very specific eating establishments or vending machines.By contrast, the investigators propose to examine the effectiveness and feasibility of an intervention for promoting increased consumption of fruits and vegetables by incentivizing their purchase where the overwhelming majority of food is sold: grocery stores. Collaborating with Brown's Super Stores and UpLift Solutions leadership, the investigators will enroll shoppers in this Randomized Clinical Trial using our the web-based research infrastructure called the Way to Health platform. The primary aim of this project is to generate preliminary evidence of the efficacy of two financial incentive structures in promoting the allocation of a greater percentage of ones grocery budget to the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables (hereafter, produce). Secondary aims are to evaluate these interventions effects on (1) self-reported consumption of produce, and (2) weight. Salutary goals of this pilot study are to document feasibility of using Price Plus cards for incentive studies, and to expand the functionality of the Way Health platform.

Conditions

• Nutrition Therapy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
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.

Timeline

• Start date: 2011-10-01
• Primary completion: 2012-09-01
• Completion: 2012-09-01
• First posted: 2011-09-19
• Last updated: 2013-01-15

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States