Diet, Eating, and Lifestyle Improvement for Valued Employees and Their Relatives

DEAL Trial: Diet, Eating, and Lifestyle Improvement for Valued Employees and Their Relatives

Food is widely understood as a cornerstone of health, however multiple barriers stand between well-intentioned, well-informed consumers and the adoption of healthier dietary practices. This mixed-methods randomized controlled trial (RCT) will measure the impact of offering a Community Sustained Agriculture (CSA) share as an employee benefit on household food environments (diets), eating behaviors, and lifestyles.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Obesity; Diet Habit; Food Habits
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: CSA membership

Detailed Description

Aim: We will test a strategy to increase frequency of cooking meals at home and consumption of healthful, fresh foods by providing study participants with a CSA membership.

Study design: This is a mixed method randomized controlled trial, with survey, home-food audit, and interview components.

Hypothesis: The intervention group who received a CSA membership as an employee benefit will prepare more meals at home and consume more healthful, fresh foods compared to the control group (no CSA participation).

Using both qualitative and quantitative assessments, outcomes will be measured using 3 primary measures:

1. Home food audits at baseline and at week 8 of the intervention. A random selection of participants will have home-food audits completed by members of the research team - those not randomly selected will complete the home-food audit themselves.
2. Self-administered surveys, including food frequency questionnaires, at baseline, week 8, and week 16.
3. Randomly selected participants will be asked to participate in qualitative interviews at the close of the 16-week intervention period.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 60
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
      • University of Pennsylvania Health System

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:

• Individuals who are non-faculty employees at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Pennsylvania Health System.
• Individuals who score below the median (50th percentile) on dinners prepared at home on screening survey.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Individuals who are under the age of 18.
• Individuals who are already have a CSA membership.

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 (CSA membership); Employees will gain CSA membership - they will receive bi-weekly deliveries of fresh fruits and vegetables to a central location near their place of employment.	Other: CSA membership; Bi-weekly fresh food delivery
No Intervention: Control (no CSA membership); Usual care, usual employee benefits. Employees do not gain CSA membership.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Quantity of meals prepared and consumed at home.	16 Weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Self-reported satisfaction with employee benefits		16 Weeks
Time spent planning meals		16 Weeks
Time spent preparing meals		16 Weeks
Perceived stress regarding food shopping, meal planning, and meal preparation	Perceived stress regarding food shopping, meal planning, and meal preparation, assessed during follow-up qualitative interviews	16 Weeks
Perceived stress regarding food shopping, meal planning, and meal preparation	Perceived stress regarding food shopping, meal planning, and meal preparation, measured comparing baseline and follow-up surveys using likert scale questions	16 Weeks
Knowledge and self-efficacy regarding healthy food preparation	Knowledge and self-efficacy regarding healthy food preparation, assessed during follow-up qualitative interviews	16 Weeks
Knowledge and self-efficacy regarding healthy food preparation	Knowledge and self-efficacy regarding healthy food preparation, measured comparing baseline and follow-up surveys using likert scale questions	16 Weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Feuerstein-Simon R, Dupuis R, Schumacher R, Cannuscio CC. A Randomized Trial to Encourage Healthy Eating Through Workplace Delivery of Fresh Food. Am J Health Promot. 2020 Mar;34(3):269-276. doi: 10.1177/0890117119890804. Epub 2019 Dec 16.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 26, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 10, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 6, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 6, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): September 8, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 19, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 18, 2019
• Last Verified: February 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 827780

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No