Evaluating a Messaging Campaign in the United States

Purpose: To evaluate reactions to and opinions of a messaging campaign.

Participants: Participants will be recruited through Prime Panels and will be US-based adults (18 years old and older) who consumed red meat in the past 30 days.

Procedures (methods): After completing a screening question about meat consumption, participants will review a consent form. If they select to participate in the study, participants will be randomly assigned to view control messages, red meat-related environment messages, or red meat-related health messages. They will be asked a series of questions about these messages.

Participants will also be asked about grocery shopping preferences and standard demographics questions.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Heart Diseases; Obesity; Cancer
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Environmental message; Other: Health message; Other: Neutral Message

Detailed Description

Excess consumption of red and processed meat is a growing problem, especially in the United States where meat is consumed more than three times the global average. Epidemiological evidence for the association between excess meat intake and negative health outcomes (such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes) as well as negative environmental impacts (such as pollution, overuse of resources, and carbon emissions) indicates that reducing meat consumption should be particularly pertinent to researchers and other public health professionals.

The potential of using widespread communication campaigns, such as Meatless Monday, to reduce meat consumption by educating individuals on the associated health and environmental risks appears to be promising. However, the current literature is missing information regarding what types of messages are most effective (e.g. negative environmental messages vs. negative health messages). To address this knowledge gap, our study will collect quantitative data in measurable outcomes to understand effectiveness and comprehension of environmental messages and health messages to reduce meat consumption.

Setting: This is an online study using Qualtrics, so this research does not involve talking to human participants.

Recruitment: Participants will be recruited through Prime Panels, a survey research firm through which participants voluntarily sign up to participate in research studies.

Informed Consent: Participants will read a written consent document that includes information about the study's purpose, expectations, and possible risks and benefits. Participants will acknowledge that they have read and agreed to the terms by clicking forward.

Randomization: Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1) control (about checking their credit score), 2) environment-focused Meatless Monday messages, or 3) health-focused Meatless Monday messages.

Assessment: Using an online platform (Qualtrics), participants will answer a screening question about red meat consumption. If they are eligible (consumption of red meat 1 time per week or more), they will proceed to the main study after reading and agreeing to the written consent form. Participants will then answer two questions about their belief in climate change. Participants will then view four messages in their ascribed conditions. After viewing all 4 messages, participants will answer a series of questions about the messages they viewed. Then, participants will answer a series of demographic questions. Participants will also answer questions about grocery shopping preferences.

Detailed description of the trial arms: This study is a three-armed between subjects' design. Participants will be randomized to view a set of four messages either about the environmental harms of meat production (intervention), the health harms of meat consumption (intervention), or about checking their credit score (control). The environmental and health harms messages were obtained from existing publicly available messages from the Meatless Monday campaign.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1244
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • North Carolina
    • Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, 27599
      • Carolina Population Center

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:

• Be 18 years or older
• Be able to read and speak English
• Be able to take a computer survey in English
• Currently reside in the United States
• Consumed red meat in the past 30 days

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non red-meat eater

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Environment-focused Meatless Monday messages; Four environmental messages from the Meatless Monday campaign.	Other: Environmental message; Participants will be randomized to view a set of four messages about the environmental harms of meat production from the Meatless Monday campaign.
EXPERIMENTAL: Health-focused Meatless Monday messages; Four health messages from the Meatless Monday campaign.	Other: Health message; Participants will be randomized to view a set of four messages about the health harms of meat consumption from the Meatless Monday campaign.
OTHER: Neutral Message; Four neutral messages about checking one's credit score.	Other: Neutral Message; Participants will be randomized to view a set of four messages about checking their credit score.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Perceived Message Effectiveness (PME)	Perceived effectiveness of the messages will be measured during the message using 4 items adapted from Baig et al. (2018): concern, unpleasantness, and discouragement. The averaged responses on the 4 items will be used to create a PME score. All 4 items are measured using a a 1 to 5 likert scale, with higher scores representing a higher amount of the construct. Questions: How much do these messages...; make you concerned about the health effects of eating red meat?; make you concerned about the environmental effects of eating red meat?; discourage you from wanting to eat red meat?; make eating red meat seem unpleasant to you?Not at all, 2=Very little, 3=Somewhat, 4=Quite a bit, 5=A great deal).	~10 minute computer survey immediately after seeing messages

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Attention	How much the message grabs one's attention. Measured using a a 1 to 5 likert scale, with higher scores representing a higher amount of the construct.	~10 minute computer survey immediately after seeing messages
Negative affect	How much the messages make one feel scared. Measured using a a 1 to 5 likert scale, with higher scores representing a higher amount of the construct.	~10 minute computer survey immediately after seeing messages
Cognitive elaboration	How much the messages make one think about the environmental/health harms caused by eating meat. Measured using a a 1 to 5 likert scale, with higher scores representing a higher amount of the construct.	~10 minute computer survey immediately after seeing messages
Social interactions	How much one is likely to talk about the message with others in the next week. Measured using a 1 to 5 likert scale, with higher scores representing a higher amount of the construct.	~10 minute computer survey immediately after seeing messages
Intention to reduce meat consumption	How much one intends to reduce red meat consumption in the next 30 days. Measured using a a 1 to 5 likert scale, with higher scores representing a higher amount of the construct.	~10 minute computer survey immediately after seeing messages

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Collaborators: Wellcome Trust
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Hannah Rayala, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Study Chair: Lindsey Smith Taillie, PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): September 29, 2020
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): October 1, 2020
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): October 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 14, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 18, 2020
• First Posted (ACTUAL): September 24, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): October 5, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 2, 2020
• Last Verified: September 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Sustainability; Processed meat; Red meat; Meat reduction
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Cardiovascular Diseases; Heart Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: 20-2552; 14380 (OTHER_GRANT: Wellcome Trust)

Drug and device information, study documents

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