Increasing Availability of Lower Energy Meals vs. Menu Energy Labelling on Food Choice

Socioeconomic Position and the Impact of Increasing Availability of Lower Energy Meals vs. Menu Energy Labelling on Food Choice in Virtual Full-service Restaurants: Two Randomized Control Trials

Two randomized control trials examining human food choice (i.e. selection of high energy 'unhealthy' foods vs. selection of healthier foods). Interventions: In a between-subjects design, participants (recruitment stratified by socioeconomic position) made food choices (main dish, plus optional sides and desserts) in the absence vs. presence of menu energy labelling and from menus with baseline (10%) vs. increased availability (50%) of lower energy main dishes. Main outcome measures: Average energy content (kcal) of main dish chosen and average total energy content of all food ordered, including optional sides and desserts.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Obesity; Diet, Healthy; Food Selection; Nutrition Poor
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Menu configuration (presence of energy labelling); Other: Menu configuration (more lower energy options added)

Detailed Description

See attached protocol documents.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 2091
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Merseyside
    • Liverpool, Merseyside, United Kingdom, L69 7ZA
      • University of Liverpool

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:

• Participants were eligible to participate if they were US residents, aged of 18 or above, fluent in English, had access to a computer with an internet connection and had no dietary restrictions

Exclusion Criteria:

• See above.

Stratification Criteria:

- We aimed to recruit a sample stratified by gender (approx. 50/50) and highest educational qualification (approx. 40% high school or less, 60% above high school) to be broadly representative of US adults.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Energy labelling; Energy labelling provided on restaurant menus	Other: Menu configuration (presence of energy labelling); Restaurant menus are altered to accommodate energy labelling intervention
NO_INTERVENTION: No energy labelling; No energy labelling provided on restaurant menus
EXPERIMENTAL: Increased availability of lower energy meals; Higher proportion of meals are 600kcals or less	Other: Menu configuration (presence of energy labelling); Restaurant menus are altered to accommodate energy labelling intervention; Other: Menu configuration (more lower energy options added); Restaurant menus are altered to include more lower energy options
NO_INTERVENTION: Baseline availability of lower energy meals; Proportion of meals that are 600kcals or less at baseline level

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Energy ordered from main menu	Total kcal content of main menu order	15-20 minutes (the time frame denotes time taken to make the menu order and there is no follow up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Total energy ordered	Total kcal content of all food ordered (including sides, desserts)	15-20 minutes (the time frame denotes time taken to make the menu order and there is no follow up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Liverpool

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Marty L, Reed SM, Jones AJ, Robinson E. Increasing availability of lower energy meals vs. energy labelling in virtual full-service restaurants: two randomized controlled trials in participants of higher and lower socioeconomic position. BMC Public Health. 2021 May 25;21(1):975. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-11007-0.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): August 1, 2019
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): November 30, 2019
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): November 30, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 2, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 6, 2020
• First Posted (ACTUAL): April 7, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): April 7, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 6, 2020
• Last Verified: April 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nutrition Disorders; Malnutrition
• Other Study ID Numbers: 803194 1B2

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Shared on the Open Science Framework
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: On publication, indefinitely
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Open website
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP

Drug and device information, study documents

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