Prevention and Management of Food Allergies

Engaging Food Service Workers in the Prevention of Food Allergy-related Adverse Events

This pilot study will test the use of visual cues to engage food service workers in protecting patrons with food allergies. Food service workers from Philadelphia quick-service restaurants were recruited to participate in a survey of attitudes that includes an embedded randomized experiment testing an experimental cue (photograph of an allergic child) to increase workers' engagement and empathy.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Food Allergy; Empathy
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Photograph

Detailed Description

Aim: Investigators pilot-tested a novel strategy to engage food service workers, by using a visual cue to increase the workers empathy for and desire to protect the patrons health and safety.

Why intervene with food service workers? Both food allergies and allergenic foods are common, as is eating, making accidental ingestion of allergenic foods almost inevitable. Risks may be particularly pronounced in out-of-home contexts (restaurants, school cafeterias, etc.), where the food allergic person must rely on service workers to assure their safety. Therefore, food service workers are important partners in the prevention of adverse events.

Design: Within the context of a survey of food service workers, investigators embedded a randomized experiment. In this experiment, investigators randomly assigned survey participants to one of two conditions: a Personalized vs. Depersonalized Chef Card. Depersonalized Chef Cards included simple written instructions regarding the patron's specific food allergies, including explicit guidance regarding foods to be avoided and information regarding the seriousness of the allergy. Personalized Chef Cards included identical written instructions and information, as well as a photograph of a patron with food allergies.

Hypothesis: Service workers exposed to the Personalized (compared to Depersonalized) Chef Cards will demonstrate greater empathy, sympathy, willingness to help, and vigilance regarding food allergies and their management.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 187
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

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:

• Employed at a quick-service restaurant
• Speaks English

Exclusion Criteria:

• Work at a table-only establishment

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention (personalized chef card); Restaurant employees received a personalized chef card, which included written information about a patron's food allergies and a photograph of the patron.	Other: Photograph; Add a photograph to a chef card.
No Intervention: Control (depersonalized chef card); Restaurant employees received a depersonalized chef card, which included written information about a patron's food allergies, without a photograph of a patron.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Mean knowledge and attitude scores reported by participants in both study groups	Mean scores (on a scale from 0-100, assessed using a survey) for knowledge and attitudes regarding food allergic patrons among both the intervention and control groups.	Investigators measured primary outcomes on Day 1 for each participant.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Mean empathy and desire to learn scores reported by participants in both study groups	Mean scores (on a scale from 0-100, assessed using a survey) for willingness to assist patrons with food allergies and desire to learn more about food allergies among both the intervention and control groups.	Investigators measured secondary outcomes on Day 1 for each participant.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Carolyn C Cannuscio, ScD, University of Pennsylvania

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Dupuis R, Meisel Z, Grande D, Strupp E, Kounaves S, Graves A, Frasso R, Cannuscio CC. Food allergy management among restaurant workers in a large U.S. city. Food control 63:147-57, 2016.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: October 1, 2013
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2014
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 6, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 24, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): March 3, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 15, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 13, 2018
• Last Verified: June 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Immune System Diseases; Hypersensitivity, Immediate; Hypersensitivity; Food Hypersensitivity
• Other Study ID Numbers: 818836