FOODS: Food shOppers' sOcial meDia Study (FOODS)

This study aims to assess the effects of a new approach to food labelling called physical activity calorie equivalent (PACE) labelling. PACE food labelling provides the public with information about how many minutes (or miles/kilometres) of physical activity (e.g. walking or running) are equivalent to the calories contained in foods.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Body Weight; Physical Activity; Eating Behaviour of Discretionary Foods; Cognitive Restraint of Eating
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: PACE plus calorie labelling information; Behavioral: Calorie-only labelling information

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 103
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Leicestershire
    • Loughborough, Leicestershire, United Kingdom, LE11 3TU
      • Loughborough University

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 old.
• BMI of ≥ 18.5 kg/m2.
• ≤ 3kg weight loss in previous 6 months.
• Access and ability to use personal Twitter and/or Instagram account via own smartphone, computer or tablet device.
• Access to the internet.
• Access to a set of weighing scales.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Unable to read and understand English.
• Experienced in the last 12 months or currently undergoing any of the following conditions or illnesses: coronary heart disease (CHD), hypertension, heart failure, stroke/transient ischaemic attack, atrial fibrillation, type 2 diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), painful condition, dementia and cancer.
• Had bariatric surgery.
• Pregnant, lactating or planning to become pregnant in the next 12 months.
• Parallel participation in another weight, dietary or physical activity intervention study.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: PACE plus calorie information intervention group; PACE plus calorie information intervention group will receive PACE plus calorie information of discretionary foods via social media posts.	Behavioral: PACE plus calorie labelling information; The intervention group will be exposed to PACE plus calorie labelling information via Instagram and Twitter social media posts every day for 13 weeks.
Active Comparator: Calorie-only information comparator group; Calorie-only information comparator group will receive calorie-only information of discretionary foods via social media posts.	Behavioral: Calorie-only labelling information; The comparator group will be exposed to calorie-only labelling information via Instagram and Twitter social media posts every day for 13 weeks.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in eating behaviour of discretionary foods at 13 weeks	Eating behaviour of discretionary foods will be assessed by a modified version of Online Food Frequency Questionnaire (eNutri FFQ), designed to measure habitual food intake. Participants will record frequencies of discretionary food and drink items eaten during the last month (e.g. "1/week" or "1/day").	Pre-baseline (one time point prior to randomisation) and post-intervention (one time point after week 13)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Cognitive restraint of eating	A modified version (R18) of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) will be used to measure cognitive restraint.	Pre-baseline (one time point prior to randomisation) and post-intervention (one time point after week 13)
Physical activity	Self-reported physical activity behaviour will be assessed using the 7-day International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ)	Pre-baseline (one time point prior to randomisation) and post-intervention (one time point after week 13)
Body weight	Weight will be self-reported via participants own weighing scales. Participants will electronically send via email photograph evidence of readings of their fasted morning weight from weighing scales, following standardised instructions.	Pre-baseline (one time point prior to randomisation), mid-intervention (week 7) and post-intervention (one time point after week 13)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Loughborough University
• Collaborators: Dr Oonagh Markey; Alexandra Todd
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Amanda Daley, Loughborough University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 6, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 30, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): October 4, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 24, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 1, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): December 8, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 8, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 7, 2021
• Last Verified: October 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Physical activity; Social media; Nutrition labelling
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Body Weight
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1544

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