School Lunch Salad Bars and Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

Salad Bars and Students' Fruit and Vegetable Consumption: A Group-randomized Trial With Objective Assessments

The investigators propose an efficacy study (i.e., do salad bars work under controlled conditions in naturalistic settings) to test whether introducing salad bars in elementary, middle, and high schools that have never had salad bars affects students' FV consumption and waste during lunch. A cluster randomized controlled trial will test new salad bars against controls for 6 wks, with/without an additional 4-wk marketing phase .

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Obesity; Diet Modification; Children, Only; Adolescent Behavior; Food Selection; Food Habits; Behavior, Eating; School
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: New salad bar; Behavioral: Marketing

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 6408
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Marc A Adams, PhD; Phone Number: 6028272470; Email: marc.adams@asu.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Meg Bruening, PhD; Email: meg.bruening@asu.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Arizona
    • Phoenix, Arizona, United States, 85004
      • Recruiting
      • Arizona State University
      • Contact: Marc A Adams

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 6 years to 18 years (ADULT, CHILD)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Students enrolled in any grade between grades one and twelve
• Student ID number matches that on a list of randomly selected student ID numbers from the population of student enrolled in school
• Students who elect to receive a hot entree at lunch
• Students who assent to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

• Students in detention
• Students in special education
• Students in Kindergarten
• Students not in school for any reason (e.g. illness, vacation)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: SINGLE

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Experimental 3; Introduction of a new salad bar and marketing conditions during second semester of school year	Behavioral: New salad bar; New salad bar placed in school; Behavioral: Marketing; Marketing conditions (printed material, displays, verbal announcements, prompts and taste tests)
EXPERIMENTAL: Experimental 2; Introduction of marketing conditions during second semester of school year	Behavioral: Marketing; Marketing conditions (printed material, displays, verbal announcements, prompts and taste tests)
EXPERIMENTAL: Experimental 1; Introduction of a new salad bar during second semester of school year	Behavioral: New salad bar; New salad bar placed in school
NO_INTERVENTION: Control; No introduction of a new salad bar and no introduction of marketing conditions

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in grams of fruit and vegetables consumed	The amount (grams) of fresh and canned fruits and vegetables consumed at lunch	Baseline (prior to randomization allocation of installation of salad bars), Time 2 (6 weeks after randomization), and Time 3 (10 weeks after randomization)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in grams of fruit and vegetables selected	The amount (grams) of fresh and canned fruits and vegetables selected at lunch	Baseline (prior to randomization allocation of installation of salad bars), Time 2 (6 weeks after randomization), and Time 3 (10 weeks after randomization)
Change in percent of fruit and vegetables wasted	The percent of fresh and canned fruits and vegetables wasted at lunch	Baseline (prior to randomization allocation of installation of salad bars), Time 2 (6 weeks after randomization), and Time 3 (10 weeks after randomization)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Arizona State University
• Collaborators: National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Adams MA, Ohri-Vachaspati P, Richards TJ, Todd M, Bruening M. Design and rationale for evaluating salad bars and students' fruit and vegetable consumption: A cluster randomized factorial trial with objective assessments. Contemp Clin Trials. 2019 Feb;77:37-45. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2018.12.007. Epub 2018 Dec 18.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): October 1, 2017
• Primary Completion (ANTICIPATED): June 30, 2022
• Study Completion (ANTICIPATED): June 30, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 12, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 12, 2017
• First Posted (ACTUAL): September 14, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): October 28, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 26, 2021
• Last Verified: October 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Children; social marketing; Fruit and vegetable intake; Plate Waste; School lunch
• Other Study ID Numbers: R01HL139120 (NIH)

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