Ultra-processed Food Consumption and Behavioral Disorder and Cognitive Function (UPF)

August 21, 2026 updated by: China Medical University Hospital

Relationship Between Ultra-processed Food Consumption and Behavioral Disorder and Cognitive Function in Children and Adolescents: the Mediation Role of Plasticizer

The goal of this interventional study is to determine whether reducing ultra-processed food consumption in children and adolescents can improve cognitive function. The main question it aims to answer is:

Does reducing ultra-processed food consumption through online nutritional education improve cognitive function in children and adolescents with attention difficulties? Researchers will compare a nutritional education group to a non-intervention group to assess whether reducing ultra-processed food intake leads to cognitive improvement.

Participants will:

Attend a weekly online nutritional education course for 12 weeks Be encouraged to replace ultra-processed foods with whole foods

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

154

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 Contact

Study Locations

  • Taiwan
      • Taichung, Taiwan, 406040
        • Recruiting
        • China Medical University Hospital
        • Contact:

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

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 10-15 years old
  • Diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or identified as having learning difficulties based on a specialist's or teacher's recommendation.
  • >=six types or six servings of ultra-processed foods daily

Exclusion Criteria:

- Younger than 10 years old or older than 15 years old

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Nutritional education group
Online nutritional education
Behavioral: Nutritional education group
Attend a weekly online nutritional education course for 12 weeks
Other Names:
  • NE
No Intervention: Control
Non nutritional education intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Cognitive function
Time Frame: Baseline and after the intervention (at 12 weeks)
Cognitive function will be assessed using selected tasks from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), covering multiple cognitive domains. CANTAB does not provide a single total score; each task generates task-specific outcome measures. Higher accuracy scores and lower reaction times or error rates generally indicate better cognitive performance.
Baseline and after the intervention (at 12 weeks)

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

China Medical University Hospital

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)

March 5, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

July 31, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

July 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 6, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 6, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

March 11, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 24, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 21, 2026

Last Verified

August 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • CMUH112-REC2-009

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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