NCT03309306

Evaluating Household Food Behavior With a Smartphone App

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 44 (actual)
• Sponsor: Pennington Biomedical Research Center · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to test the use of a smartphone app as a way to measure food waste. Investigators propose to improve the accuracy and convenience of household food waste measurement so that consumer food waste program evaluations yield more power, less bias, less measurement error, and greater representation of targeted populations.

Detailed description

Investigators will improve measurement via the development of the FoodImage smartphone app, a technology leveraging the investigators' expertise in creating and deploying apps to measure food intake and deliver nutritional interventions in free-living household conditions. Investigators will validate the app against weighed waste in a controlled laboratory setting. The study will yield an app ready for future study deployment while analyses of the data will inform rapidly evolving policy discussions concerning optimal approaches to reduce food waste. These outcomes align with program priorities to understand the economics of food waste and to use behavioral economics to address consumption behavior. Specific objectives include: 1. Development of FoodImage, a smartphone app that measures household food waste and food-waste-related behaviors, 2. Assess differences in the accuracy and time burden of measurements taken with the FoodImage app versus two current household food waste measurement approaches (a pen-and-paper diary, and a pen-and-paper diary with a scale). 3. Use the FoodImage app in a pilot randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of reducing household food waste through behavioral nudges in the form of personalized feedback about food waste levels and household-specific reduction goals.

Conditions

• Food Habits

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Natural Environment/Stress Management	Participants will use the FoodImage app to capture data on food purchases, food waste that occurs during food preparation, food waste that is present after eating, and food waste from food purges in free-living conditions. Participants will capture baseline data for 4-7 days. After a 1-week break, participants will use the app to record food waste for approximately 4-7 days over the subsequent week. They will also receive information on stress management
BEHAVIORAL	Natural Environment/Reduce Food Waste	Participants will use the FoodImage app to capture data on food purchases, food waste that occurs during food preparation, food waste that is present after eating, and food waste from food purges in free-living conditions. Participants will use the app to record food waste for approximately 4-7 days over the subsequent week. They will also be provided with the following: 1. Feedback on the amount of food waste their household created during the first week, 2. A goal to reduce the next week's food waste by 20% or more, and 3. Tips on how to reduce household food waste adapted from current consumer campaigns

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-04-26
• Primary completion: 2018-09-07
• Completion: 2020-03-31
• First posted: 2017-10-13
• Last updated: 2025-01-24
• Results posted: 2025-01-24

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States