NCT07103967

Investigating the Effects of Calorie Information and Serving Size of Alcohol Products on Alcohol Consumption.

Investigating the Effect of Alcohol Serving Size and Calorie Information on Alcohol Consumption: A Real-world Experiment

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 312 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Liverpool · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The present study aims to investigate whether alcohol consumption is reduced when participants are shown calorie information of alcohol products, compared with when calorie information is absent. We also wish to see whether alcohol consumption levels are reduced when changing the serving sizes available to participants.

Detailed description

We will examine the effect of alcohol calorie information on calorie and alcohol unit consumption in a semi-naturalistic real-world experiment by randomising pub quiz evenings to alcohol calorie information vs. absence of calorie information (control). Because current evidence for alcohol calorie information from online hypothetical choice experiments suggests any impact on alcohol consumption may be null or very small, we will compare and benchmark the size of any potential effect of alcohol calorie information to another public health alcohol intervention known to reduce alcohol consumption (alcohol serving size). We will achieve this by also randomizing evenings to normal sized servings of alcohol (control) vs. reduced serving sizes. In addition to examining effects of interventions on what people drink and eat during the pub quiz, we will examine alcohol and energy intake after the pub quiz to probe for potential compensatory behaviour in response to interventions. Because it is currently unclear how useful consumers find alcohol information when implemented in real-world conditions, we will also examine the extent to which participants perceive the interventions to be effective.

Conditions

• Obesity and Overweight
• Alcohol

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Calorie information manipulation	The intervention will be administered by changing the information presenting to participants at point-of-choice when ordering alcoholic drinks and bar snacks. When alcohol calorie information is present, participants will see the calorie content of alcohol products on menus and at other point-of-choice locations. When it is not present, this information will be absent.
BEHAVIORAL	Serving size manipulation	The intervention will be administered by changing the availability of alcoholic drinks. When serving sizes are reduced, participants will only be able to order 2/3 pint of 1/2 servings of beer, and 125 ml servings of wine. When serving sizes are not reduced, participants will be able to order 1 pint servings or 1/2 servings of beer, and 175 ml or 125 ml servings of wine.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-07-30
• Primary completion: 2025-12-06
• Completion: 2025-12-06
• First posted: 2025-08-05
• Last updated: 2026-02-19

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United Kingdom