Randomized Trial of Healthy Eating Interventions (WTE)

January 14, 2013 updated by: Scott Halpern, University of Pennsylvania

Financial Incentives for Healthy Eating: A Randomized Pilot Study

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).

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

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.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

42

Phase

  • 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

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Current Parkside Brown's Super Stores shoppers who use a Price Plus Card
  • Have regular internet access
  • Spend at least $30 per household member per week on groceries
  • Spend 10% or less of their grocery budget on produce
  • 18 years of age or older
  • weekly grocery shoppers

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Plan to move in the next 4 months
  • Plan to stop shopping at Brown's Super Stores in the next 4 months
  • Plan to stop using their Price Plus card in the next 4 months
  • Receive any assistance like SNAP or WIC

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Usual Care arm
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.
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.
Experimental: Information provision intervention
Participants in the Information provision group will receive the same care as those in the Usual Care arm. In addition, the Information provision group participants will receive weekly reminders about the benefits of eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day and their Way to Health portal will provide graphical depictions of their produce purchase proportions through information from their Price Plus card. This data will be available to them throughout the entire intervention.
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.
Experimental: Information provision + flat incentive
Participants assigned to the Information provision + flat group 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 Information provision arm.
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.
Experimental: Information provision + tiered incentive
In addition to receiving all features of the Information provision treatment the participants assigned to the Information provision + tiered incentive group would earn back increasing percentages of their grocery spending for meeting increasing targets of produce consumption. In this arm, the more participants spend on produce the more money they can earn back.
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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Changes from baseline in proportion of fruit and vegetable purchases
Time Frame: weekly for 3 months
Changes from baseline in proportion of grocery money that is spent on fruits and vegetables each week for 12 weeks across each intervention group. Fruits and vegetables, or produce, will be defined by the food product itself, not its location in the store. Produce in this study will include frozen and canned fruits and vegetables as well as fresh fruits and vegetables.
weekly for 3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Changes from baseline in self-reported consumption of fruits and vegetables
Time Frame: weekly for 3 months
Changes from baseline in self-reported consumption of fruits and vegetables each week for 12 weeks across each intervention.
weekly for 3 months
Changes in body weight from baseline to end of treatment (12 weeks after intervention start)
Time Frame: Baseline and an average of 12-14 weeks after intervention start
Changes in body weight from baseline to end of treatment (12 weeks after intervention start; pre- and post- intervention).
Baseline and an average of 12-14 weeks after intervention start

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Pennsylvania

Collaborators

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Scott D Halpern, MD, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
  • Principal Investigator: Kathryn A Saulsgiver, MS, PhD, University of Pennsylvania

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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

October 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 14, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 16, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

September 19, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 15, 2013

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 14, 2013

Last Verified

January 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • WTE-814279
  • RC2AG036592 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

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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