The Effect of a Descriptive Norm Promoting Vegetable Selection in a Workplace Restaurant Setting: an Observational Study

November 9, 2015 updated by: University of Birmingham

The Effect of a Descriptive Norm Promoting Vegetable Selection in a Workplace

Encouraging individuals to eat fruit and vegetables is difficult. However, recent evidence suggests that using social-based information might help. For instance, it has been shown that if people think that others are eating lots of fruit and vegetables, that they will consume more food to match the 'norm'.The purpose of this study was to determine whether social norm messages could be used to enhance vegetable purchases in workplace restaurants, in an observational study.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

In this study the investigators hypothesised that placing posters containing social norm messages promoting vegetable consumption in three workplace restaurants, would increase the purchase of meals with vegetables, and that this effect would be sustained over time. The investigators recruited three restaurants to this study. For two weeks (Pre-intervention phase) the investigators used till receipts to monitor the number of meals sold with or without vegetables at baseline. For the following two weeks (Intervention phase) the investigators placed social norms posters around the three restaurants, while continuing to collect till receipts. After this, the posters were removed, and receipts were monitored for a final two weeks (Post-intervention).

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

9445

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
    • West Midlands
      • Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom, B15 2TT
        • University of Birmingham

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

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Customers at workplace restaurants.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Purchase of a meal at one of the restaurants

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None

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?

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Workplace Restaurant Customers

1 Group (Workplace Restaurant Customers) across 3 sites (data to be combined at end of study)

Study consists of three phases:

  1. Pre Intervention
  2. Intervention
  3. Post Intervention

All phases lasted two weeks and included monitoring till receipts for meals (these were automatically generated and held on the tills electronically). The intervention phase consisted of posters being displayed in the restaurants, featuring a Social Norms Poster.
Other: Social Norms Poster
A poster containing a social norms message: "Most people here choose to eat vegetables with their lunch"

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Percentage of meals containing vegetables
Time Frame: 7 months
7 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Birmingham

Collaborators

Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom
C H & Co Ltd.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jason M Thomas, PhD, University of Birmingham

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, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2015

Study Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 22, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 9, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

November 11, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

November 11, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 9, 2015

Last Verified

November 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • UBirmingham-SNS7

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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