Vending Labeling Sales and Intercepts Study

February 6, 2024 updated by: University of Pennsylvania

A Large Scale Long-term Randomized Trial of Nutrition Labeling Interventions

The aim of this study is to compare the impact of 4 different types of front of package (FOP) food and beverage messages: 1) green labels on healthy foods, 2) red/yellow/green labels on less healthy/moderately healthy/healthy foods, 3) physical activity calorie equivalent labels, and 4) posters reminding consumers of the sweetened beverage tax on consumers' beverage and snack selections.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

This project involves a randomized field experiment. The investigators worked with the vending contractor for the City of Philadelphia to randomize vending machine locations (covering ~260 beverage and snack machines) to one of the four different message conditions: 1) single green traffic light labels (on healthy foods); 2) multiple traffic light labels (red traffic light labels applied to less healthy foods, yellow applied to moderately healthy foods, and green on healthy foods); 3) physical activity labels (calorie content displayed in terms of physical activity equivalents); 4) posters reminding consumers of the Philadelphia sweetened beverage tax and encouraging healthier choices. The City's vending machine contractors provided monthly aggregated sales data from each machine for analysis. Customer intercepts were also collected at the point of sale, after customers completed their purchase, to evaluate factors that moderate message influence. They were asked to answer questions about their perceptions of the different labels.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
1065

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
        • University of Pennsylvania

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Sales data include all purchases at the machine regardless of customer demographics.

Customer purchase assessment data were collected from:

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Any person aged 18 or older making a purchase from the vending machines included in this intervention will be asked to participate in this study.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • People who indicate they have already taken the survey are not eligible to take the survey again.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Green labels
green label added to healthy product slots; no additional labels shown for "less healthy" products and 1 poster per machine explaining the labels
Behavioral: exposure to healthy labels only
Green labels only for beverages and foods scored as healthy
Experimental: Traffic light labels
red/yellow/green labels added to slots for less healthy/moderately healthy/healthy products, respectively and 1 poster per machine explaining the labels
Behavioral: exposure to healthiness information
All beverages and foods labeled as either healthy (green), moderately healthy (yellow), or less healthy (red)
Experimental: Physical activity calorie equivalent labels
labels added to slots that display products' calorie content in terms of physical activity required to burn those calories and 1 poster per machine explaining the labels
Behavioral: exposure to physical activity equivalents
All beverages and foods labeled with physical activity required to burn their calories
Experimental: Sweetened beverage tax posters
1 poster per machine; no labels; posters reminded consumers of the Philadelphia sweetened beverage tax and encouraging healthier choices
Behavioral: exposure to sweetened beverage tax messaging
Message reminding consumers to make healthier choices

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Percentage of beverages sold with calories per month
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is percentage of monthly beverages selected that had calories
Every month, for 13 months
Calories sold from beverages per month, if beverages with calories sold
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is calories in beverages sold per month - only for beverages with calories.
Every month, for 13 months
Calories sold from snacks per month
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is calories in snacks sold per month.
Every month, for 13 months
Likelihood of selecting a healthy beverage
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is percentage of monthly beverages selected were healthy beverages (green labeled in the traffic light condition)
Every month, for 13 months
Likelihood of selecting a moderately healthy beverage
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is percentage of monthly beverages selected were moderately healthy beverages (yellow labeled in the traffic light condition)
Every month, for 13 months
Likelihood of selecting a less healthy beverage
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is percentage of monthly beverages selected were less healthy beverages (red labeled in the traffic light condition)
Every month, for 13 months
Likelihood of selecting a healthy snack
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is percentage of monthly snacks selected were healthy snacks (green labeled in the traffic light condition)
Every month, for 13 months
Likelihood of selecting a moderately healthy snack
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is percentage of monthly snacks selected were moderately healthy snacks (yellow labeled in the traffic light condition)
Every month, for 13 months
Likelihood of selecting a less healthy snack
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is percentage of monthly snacks selected were less healthy snacks (red labeled in the traffic light condition)
Every month, for 13 months
Total beverage units sold per month per machine.
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is number of monthly beverages sold per machine
Every month, for 13 months
Total snack units sold per month per machine
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is number of monthly snacks sold per machine
Every month, for 13 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Total revenue per month per beverage machine
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is the total dollar sales per month per beverage machine.
Every month, for 13 months
Total revenue per month per snack machine
Time Frame: Every month, for 13 months
Outcome is the total dollar sales per month per snack machine.
Every month, for 13 months
Total calories sold per customer trip
Time Frame: 5-minute survey
Customer purchase assessments will be conducted in front of study machines. Outcome is total number of calories (beverage + snack) purchased per customer trip.
5-minute survey

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
University of Pennsylvania

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Christina A Roberto, University of Pennsylvania

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
February 1, 2019

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
March 12, 2020

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
March 12, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
January 29, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
February 6, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
February 15, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
February 15, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
February 6, 2024

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 828722
  • R01DK113307 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • 15163 (Registry Identifier: AsPredicted.org)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Machine sales data are proprietary and cannot be shared. However, no identifiable data were collected from the customer purchase assessments, so after analysis, the investigators will upload the customer de-identified data to ResearchBox for public sharing.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

starting 6 months after publication

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

public

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • SAP

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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