Fast Food Photo Study

January 26, 2016 updated by: Eric VanEpps, Carnegie Mellon University

What's Wrong With This Photo? Fast Food Literacy Study

The investigators aim to discover if people of different demographic levels are more or less attentive to changes in calorie information vs. changes in price information on a restaurant menu. The investigators will record whether the calorie/price change was noticed or not, as well as how quickly the calorie/price change was noticed, depending on condition and individual differences.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Participants complete a short study regarding their ability to detect "mistakes" in a printed version of a fast food restaurant menu. We ask participants to identify the differences between the menu board and a typical menu board at that location. Individuals list the differences that they find and have a chance to win a prize if they identify the most mistakes among participants recruited that day. The differences created will remain constant (e.g., featuring Pepsi products instead of the typical Coca-Cola offerings, including items from other restaurants on the menu), including changes to calorie labels and price labels. Additionally, we recruit participants in a variety of locations to test for differences between demographics (e.g., income groups, education levels, and BMI levels).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

309

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
      • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15213
        • Carnegie Mellon University
      • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15212
        • Community College of Allegheny County

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:

  • Age 18 or older
  • Speaks English
  • Willing to complete both task and follow-up survey

Exclusion Criteria:

  • N/A

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: Basic Science
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 50% Prices/50% Calories

The participant is exposed to the baseline menu, but the prices are edited to be at 50% of the actual price (e.g., a $1 coffee is listed as costing $.50) and the calorie labels are edited to be at 50% of the actual content (e.g., a 500 calorie Large Fries is listed as having 250 calories). In addition, the baseline mistakes are still included.

This is the "Menu edited" intervention.
Other: Menu edited
The menu is edited to change price label to 50% of actual value and calorie label to 50% of the actual value, along with other changes.
Other Names:
  • 50% Prices/50% Calories

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Calorie and Price Mistakes Noticed
Time Frame: 10 minutes
Did participants indicate that a mistake was present in the calorie labels or price labels?
10 minutes

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Time until Calorie and Price Mistakes Noticed
Time Frame: 10 minutes
How long in seconds did it take before participants indicated that a mistake was present in the calorie labels or price labels?
10 minutes
Mistake Number for Calorie and Price Mistakes Noticed
Time Frame: 10 minutes
How many other mistakes were noticed before calorie/price mistake was noticed?
10 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Carnegie Mellon University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Eric M VanEpps, MS, Carnegie Mellon University

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

November 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2015

Study Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 14, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 17, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

October 20, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 27, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 26, 2016

Last Verified

January 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HS14-582

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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