Public Support for Prison Nutrition Standards

August 11, 2025 updated by: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

The goal of this experiment is to examine the impact of policy rationale on public support for prison nutrition standards. The main question this experiment aims to answer is:

Does the rationale provided for a policy to improve prison nutrition standards impact public support for such a policy?

Additionally, this experiment aims to answer:

To what extent are participant demographic characteristics correlated with public support for prison nutrition standards?

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study aims to examine the impact of policy rationale on public support for prison nutrition standards. In an online survey, participants will be asked to imagine a new U.S. policy which would require prisons to serve meals that meet the government definition of healthy. Participants will then be randomly assigned to view 1 of 3 different rationales for the new policy, or be assigned to a control arm where no rationale is given. All participants will answer a question about support for the policy.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

1201

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • North Carolina
      • Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, 27599
        • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • At least 18 years of age
  • Report residing in the US
  • Can read and speak English
  • Have internet access to complete the online survey

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Under 18 years of age
  • Residing outside the US

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Public safety rationale
Behavioral: Public safety rationale
Rationale provided for policy is to increase community safety.
Experimental: Right-to-health rationale
Behavioral: Right-to-health rationale
Rationale provided for policy is to support humans' right to healthy food.
Experimental: Cost-saving rationale
Behavioral: Cost-saving rationale
Rationale provided for policy is to save the government money.
Other: No rationale (Control)
Behavioral: No rationale (Control)
In this arm, no rationale is provided for the policy.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Policy Support
Time Frame: Assessed one-time via online survey immediately after participant views each policy rationale (exposure to study stimuli). Overall survey will take approximately 15 minutes.
Policy support will be measured with an item that reads "Would you…" with response options on a 5-point scale ranging from "Strongly oppose this law" coded as 1, to "Strongly support this law", coded as 5. Higher scores indicate stronger policy support.
Assessed one-time via online survey immediately after participant views each policy rationale (exposure to study stimuli). Overall survey will take approximately 15 minutes.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Collaborators

Stanford University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Carolyn Chelius, MS, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

May 7, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 4, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

June 4, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 17, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 17, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

February 21, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 12, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 11, 2025

Last Verified

May 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 25-0030

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

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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