Pilot Testing of Food Images in Children

This is a single, un-replicated visit to the Children's Metabolic Kitchen and Eating Behavior Lab designed to gather data on children's responses to images used in MRI studies. Additionally, a demographic questionnaire for parents will be piloted.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Childhood Obesity; fMRI

Detailed Description

The Pilot Test Session will take place in the Children's Metabolic Kitchen and Eating Behavior Lab in Chandlee Laboratory. Up to four hundred subjects (200 children and 200 parents) may be recruited.

Child Procedures: Both Child and parent's current height and weight will be obtained. After being seated at a computer, they will complete the Children's Anxiety Meter-State (CAMS) and a Freddy Fullness pictorial hunger score. Then their ability to discriminate between portion sizes will be assessed. They will be shown several pictures of macaroni and cheese on a standard white plate with a grey tablecloth background and asked to determine which picture had a larger amount of food. Finally, they will view 180 pictures of common foods and non-food objects (office supplies). After each picture, children will be instructed to answer questions about the image (what is this image, how happy does it make you feel and how excited does it make you feel). Children will then score their hunger again with a Freddy Fullness pictorial hunger score and take a Post-Scanning Questionnaire.

Parent Procedures: Parent's current height and weight will be obtained and he/she will complete a demographic questionnaire.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 400

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • University Park, Pennsylvania, United States, 16802
      • Metabolic Kitchen and Children's Eating Behavior Lab

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 6 years to 10 years (CHILD)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Parents and their 6-10 year old children in Centre County, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Child is 6 to 10 years old
• Child is physically healthy and does not have a diagnosed learning disorder

Exclusion Criteria:

• Child is < 6 or > 10 years old
• Child is not physically healthy or has a diagnosed learning disorder

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Children 6 to 10; Children must be between the ages of 6-10 years-old at the time they participate. All children will be physically healthy and without diagnosed learning disorders. A parent or legal guardian must be able to accompany the child.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Pilot Image Description by Children	Once the child is comfortable in our lab and consent has been received, they will be shown a total of 150 - 200 pictures of foods and non-food objects (e.g. office supplies). They will also be shown control images that are blurred or scrambled versions of the test images. After each picture, children will be instructed answer questions about the image (ex. what is this image, how much do you like it, how large is it, etc.)	baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Anthropometric Measures:weight	The parent and child will be weighed in kg.	baseline
Anthropometric Measures:height	The height of the parent and child will be measured in meters.	baseline
Demographic Questionnaire	The parent will complete a fill-in the blank and multiple choice demographic questionnaire. No scales are used.	baseline
Freddy Fullness Scale Rating	The child will complete a pictorial scale of fullness using a Freddy Scale. This is basically a vertical slider scale, with an empty stomach equaling 0 mm and a full stomach being 150 mm.	baseline
CAMS anxiety scale Rating	The child will complete a CAMS anxiety scale questionnaire before viewing the images. This scale resembles a sliding scale thermometer. When the thermometer is empty, at zero, the child is calm and not nervous or worried. When the thermometer is full, the child is very, very nervous or worried.	baseline

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Post-Scanning Questionnaire	After viewing the images and answering questions, children will be interviewed by the researcher to find out if they liked the procedure and whether or not they would refer their friends (to determine if other children are likely to enjoy the experience). There is no scale, the questions require a verbal answer.	baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Penn State University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Burger KS, Stice E. Variability in reward responsivity and obesity: evidence from brain imaging studies. Curr Drug Abuse Rev. 2011 Sep;4(3):182-9. doi: 10.2174/1874473711104030182.
• Bruce AS, Martin LE, Savage CR. Neural correlates of pediatric obesity. Prev Med. 2011 Jun;52 Suppl 1:S29-35. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2011.01.018. Epub 2011 Feb 1.
• De Silva A, Salem V, Matthews PM, Dhillo WS. The use of functional MRI to study appetite control in the CNS. Exp Diabetes Res. 2012;2012:764017. doi: 10.1155/2012/764017. Epub 2012 May 8.

Helpful Links

• Dr. Kathleen Keller's current research

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 9, 2017
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): December 1, 2022
• Study Completion (Anticipated): July 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 11, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 7, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): November 9, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 5, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 4, 2022
• Last Verified: April 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Childhood Obesity; fMRI; Portion Size Effect
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Overnutrition; Nutrition Disorders; Overweight; Body Weight; Obesity; Pediatric Obesity
• Other Study ID Numbers: Pilot Food Images

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: De-identified data will be shared with other investigators by special request made by email to the PI (Kathleen L. Keller klk37@psu.edu). For investigators who request use of the data, we will request acknowledgement of our research group and Penn State University in any public presentation of the results obtained from this study.

Drug and device information, study documents

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