Fruits and Vegetables Incentives Study

Impact of Real-Time Incentives on Fruit and Vegetable Purchases and Diet

The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of financial incentives delivered in real-time at point of purchase, on low-income consumers' purchase of fruits and vegetables, fruits and vegetables consumption, diet quality, and weight/BMI. The study will test real-time incentives compared to a no-incentive control condition.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Obesity; Healthy Diet; Fruit and Vegetable Intake
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Real-Time Incentives Group

Detailed Description

To address diet quality disparities in low-income families, policy makers and health experts recommend strategies such as financial incentives to promote consumption of fruits and vegetables. Real-time incentives for purchasing fruits and vegetables are promising strategies to improve families' diets and health.

The aims of the study are:

1. To test the effects of financial incentives, delivered in real-time at the point of purchase, on low-income consumer purchases of fruits and vegetables
2. To evaluate the impact of real-time financial incentives compared to a control condition on FV consumption among adults and their children ,shopping habits, home food environments, diet quality, and weight/BMI
3. To adapt mobile platform technology to provide regular feedback to participants to motivate use of the incentive program to increase purchases and consumption of fruits and vegetables
4. To evaluate participant satisfaction with real-time healthy food choice incentives technology in both SNAP participants and income-eligible non-SNAP participants
5. To assess the acceptability and ease of use of real-time healthy food choice incentives technology among retails supermarket managers and staff in low-income neighborhoods.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 244
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

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

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years of age or older
• Speak English
• Do most of their food shopping at a participating supermarket
• Receive or are eligible to receive SNAP benefits
• Have a child in the household between the ages of 2-17
• Have a working smartphone
• Be the main household shopper

Exclusion Criteria:

• Participants will be excluded if the primary shopper and/or any children in the family have major medical or dental conditions that would prevent them from eating fruits and vegetables, or if they have a serious neurological disorder, dementia, or psychiatric condition that interferes with understanding study procedures

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Real-Time Incentives Group; Each participant will be randomized using a blocking procedure (SNAP participant or not). The intervention will last 6 months and consist of receiving real-time financial incentives at the point of purchase for eligible fruits and vegetables purchases.	Behavioral: Real-Time Incentives Group; The use of a novel computer program with a mobile phone interface to provide real-time financial incentives at the point of purchase for discounts on fruit and vegetables in low-income families. This intervention will be applied to subjects randomized to the intervention arm. They will receive 50% off eligible fruits and vegetable products at the point of purchase, up to $10 a week for 6 months. Maximum amount they can receive is $260 in discounts over the 6 month period.
No Intervention: Control Group; No intervention administered. Each participant will be randomized using a blocking procedure (SNAP participant or not).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Self-reported fruits and vegetables (FV) purchase data	Participants will be asked if they increased, maintained, or decreased their purchases of canned, frozen, and fresh FV in the previous months.	up to 8 months
Intake of fruits and vegetables (FV) per day	FV consumption intake will be assessed using the Dietary Screener Questionnaire from NHANES (National Healthy and Examination Survey) 2009-2010.	Baseline, 6 months, 8 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Total mean of fruits and vegetables expenditures/purchases and incentives earned	Solutran analytics, our partner that will be delivering the incentives, will be providing weekly data on FV expenditures/purchases and incentives earned (in dollars). The total mean of FV expenditures/purchases and incentives earned will be computed.	up to 8 months
Dietary changes for each adult participant and one child in their household	High sugar/fat food and sugary beverage intake will be assessed using the Dietary Screener Questionnaire from NHANES (National Healthy and Examination Survey) 2009-2010.	Baseline, 6 months, 8 months
Changes in dietary habits and food environments	Surveys will ask about perceived availability, cost and quality of FV at stores, the home food environment (both healthy and unhealthy foods), shopping habits and where they shop, FV practices for children in the home, and FV preparation and consumption patterns. Part of the survey is a modified version of the NEMS-P (Nutrition Environment Measures Survey- Perceived).	Baseline, 6 months, 8 months
Changes in BMI	Self-reported weight and height (inches) will be collected at each time point via self-report. Using weight and height values collected, BMI, BMI categories, and BMI z-scores (for children) will be computed for each time point.	Baseline, 6 months, 8 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania
• Collaborators: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Karen Glanz, PhD, MPH, University of Pennsylvania

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 15, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 30, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): November 30, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 8, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 16, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): January 21, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 12, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 10, 2023
• Last Verified: January 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: nutrition; health disparities; food purchases
• Other Study ID Numbers: 833359

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: Undecided

Drug and device information, study documents

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