You Are What You Eat: A Randomised Controlled Trial of an Appearance-based Dietary Intervention

January 12, 2012 updated by: David Perrett, Perception Lab
This study investigated whether illustration of the facial appearance benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption is able to motivate increased intake of this food group. The investigators hypothesize that individuals witnessing illustrations of the impact of a healthy diet will exhibit improvements in diet relative to a control group receiving only information on the health-benefits of this food group.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

73

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 Kingdom
    • Fife
      • St Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom, KY16 9JP
        • Perception Lab, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews

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 to 61 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Student or staff member at University of St Andrews
  • Has access to email account to receive link to weekly online questionnaire.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Exited study before completion
  • Unable to make dietary changes due to a medical condition

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
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Information-only
Selected pages from the British National Health Service (NHS) information booklets ["5 A Day, Just Eat More (fruit & veg)"; pages i, ii, 12-15, 20 & 21] and ["5 A Day, Just Eat More (fruit & veg): What's it all about?"; pages i-ii)] were provided to all participants on completion of baseline questionnaires. The pages provided information on recommended portion sizes, meal planning, health benefits and answered frequently asked diet-related questions
Behavioral: Information-only
Selected pages from the British National Health Service (NHS) information booklets ["5 A Day, Just Eat More (fruit & veg)"; pages i, ii, 12-15, 20 & 21] and ["5 A Day, Just Eat More (fruit & veg): What's it all about?"; pages i-ii)] were provided to all participants on completion of baseline questionnaires. The pages provided information on recommended portion sizes, meal planning, health benefits and answered frequently asked diet-related questions
Experimental: Generic-appearance intervention

Participants in the generic appearance intervention group received images to illustrate the impact of fruit and vegetable consumption on skin appearance. Participants in this group were presented with gender congruent stimuli, constructed by averaging the facial shape and colour of four male/female faces.

Participants viewed the gender-congruent set of the resulting stimuli in two forms. Firstly, after completion of baseline questionnaires, images were displayed on a computer monitor. Participants were instructed to select what they perceived as the healthiest face colour, which was recorded by the computer program over two trials.

Participants in this group also received a take-home photo quality leaflet to further illustrate the effect of fruit and vegetable consumption on skin colour.
Behavioral: Generic appearance intervention

Participants in the generic appearance intervention group received images to illustrate the impact of fruit and vegetable consumption on skin appearance. Participants in this group were presented with gender congruent stimuli, constructed by averaging the facial shape and colour of four male/female faces.

Participants viewed the gender-congruent set of the resulting stimuli in two forms. Firstly, after completion of baseline questionnaires, images were displayed on a computer monitor. Participants were instructed to select what they perceived as the healthiest face colour, which was recorded by the computer program over two trials.

Participants in this group also received a take-home photo quality leaflet to further illustrate the effect of fruit and vegetable consumption on skin colour.
Experimental: Personalised appearance intervention
Participants in this group received stimuli manipulated in identical ways to that received by the generic appearance-intervention group, except the illustrations were performed upon images of the participant's own face.
Behavioral: Personalised appearance intervention
Participants in this group received stimuli manipulated in identical ways to that received by the generic appearance-intervention group, except the illustrations were performed upon images of the participant's own face.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Fruit and vegetable consumption
Time Frame: up to 10 weeks
Participants completed a computerised food frequency questionnaire to establish fruit and vegetable consumption. Participants were asked to retrospectively report consumption frequency of fruit juice, fruit, vegetable juice, salad, vegetable soup and vegetable items over the past seven days. Participants reported consumption of standard portion sizes and were provided with NHS illustrations of portion size guidelines to assist estimations.
up to 10 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Perception Lab

Collaborators

Unilever R&D

Investigators

  • Study Director: Ross D Whitehead, MSc, University of St Andrews

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

February 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2011

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 23, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 12, 2012

First Posted (Estimate)

January 18, 2012

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 18, 2012

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 12, 2012

Last Verified

January 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PerceptionLab001

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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