Ultraprocessed Foods in Colombia

The study seeks to examine how characters on packaging and warning labels affect purchase intentions and risk perception among children aged 12 to 17 in Colombia and, examine whether characters' presence weakens or reduces the perceived message effectiveness of the warning labels' impact. This will be a 2x2 between-subjects experiment manipulating presence or absence of characters and presence or absence of warning labels. Participants will be randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions in an online survey programmed in Qualtrics.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Obesity
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Warning label; Behavioral: Character; Behavioral: Barcode control label; Behavioral: Without character

Detailed Description

This study will employ a 2x2 between-subjects experimental design to investigate the independent and combined effects of characters and front-of-package warning labels on children's risk perceptions, purchase intentions and perceived message effectiveness regarding ultra-processed foods.

After parents or legal guardians provide informed consent and the children assent to participate, the survey platform (Qualtrics) will randomly assign each child to one of four experimental conditions:

1. Warning label + Character
2. Warning label only
3. Barcode control label + Character
4. Barcode control label only

Participants will complete the study online through a self-administered survey programmed in Qualtrics. This survey has a duration of approximately 15 minutes. Each child will be exposed to three fictional ultra-processed food products (cookies package, juice bottle, and chip bag), displayed in random order. The stimuli were developed to resemble common products in Colombia but without using real brands to avoid brand loyalty bias. Each product will be displayed with a label consistent with the child's assigned experimental condition.

Children will respond to a series of questions for each product individually. These questions will assess:

• Risk perception
• Purchase intention
• Perceived message effectiveness

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 1960
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Maria Parra-Murillo; Phone Number: 9843220948; Email: mparram@unc.edu

Study Locations

• Colombia
  • Bogotá, Colombia
    • Online panel
    • Contact: Luis F Gómez; Phone Number: (+57) 601 320 8320 Ext. 2843; Email: l.gomezg@javeriana.edu.co
    • Principal Investigator: Luis Fernando Gómez Guitierrez, MD

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Children and adolescents between 12 and 17 years old
• Colombian residents

Exclusion Criteria:

• Children with legal blindness, partial blindness, or total blindness, since the study involves viewing images and reading questions.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Warning label + Character	Behavioral: Warning label; Participants will view images of three products containing octagonal warning labels.; Behavioral: Character; Participants will view images of three products containing characters.
Experimental: Barcode control label + Character	Behavioral: Character; Participants will view images of three products containing characters.; Behavioral: Barcode control label; Participants will view images of three products containing Barcode control label.
Experimental: Warning label only	Behavioral: Warning label; Participants will view images of three products containing octagonal warning labels.; Behavioral: Without character; Participants will view images of three products without characters.
Other: Barcode control label only	Behavioral: Barcode control label; Participants will view images of three products containing Barcode control label.; Behavioral: Without character; Participants will view images of three products without characters.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Purchase intention	Purchase intention will be assessed using 1 item: "How likely are you to consume this product?" Responses will be recorded on a 5-point Likert-style scale ranging from 1 ("Not at all likely") to 5 ("Very likely"). Because this is a single-item measure, the total score ranges from 1 to 5. Higher scores indicate greater purchase intention, whereas lower scores indicate lower purchase intention.	During ~15 minute online survey
Risk perception	Risk perception will be assessed using 1 item: "How healthy do you think this product is?" Responses will be recorded on a 5-point Likert-style scale ranging from 1 ("Not healthy at all") to 5 ("Very healthy"). Because this is a single-item measure, the total score ranges from 1 to 5. Higher scores indicate that the product is perceived as healthier (i.e., lower perceived risk), whereas lower scores indicate that the product is perceived as less healthy (i.e., higher perceived risk).	During ~15 minute online survey

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Perceived Message Effectiveness	Perceived message effectiveness will be assessed using 3 items, each measured on a 5-point Likert-style scale (1-5): "How much does this label make you worry about what consuming this product will do to you?" (1 = Not at all worried; 5 = Extremely worried) "How much does this label make you think consuming this product is a bad idea?" (1 = Makes me think it's a very good idea to consume it; 5 = Makes me think it's a very bad idea to consume it) "How much does this label discourage you from consuming this product?" (1 = Doesn't discourage me at all; 5 = Completely discourages me) For each product evaluated, a perceived message effectiveness score will be calculated as the mean of the 3 items, resulting in a score ranging from 1 to 5. Higher scores indicate greater perceived message effectiveness, whereas lower scores indicate lower perceived message effectiveness.	During ~15 minute online survey

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Collaborators: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; The Bloomberg Family Foundation, Inc.
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Maria Parra-Murillo, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Study Director: Marissa Hall, PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): May 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 7, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 7, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): April 14, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 14, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 7, 2026
• Last Verified: March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nutrition Disorders; Overnutrition; Body Weight; Overweight; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Obesity; Genetic Phenomena; Inheritance Patterns; Multifactorial Inheritance
• Other Study ID Numbers: 24-2935

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