Evaluating a Messaging Campaign in the United States
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Enrollment
- 1,244
- Locations
- 2
- Primary Endpoint
- Perceived Message Effectiveness (PME)
Study Overview
Brief Summary
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.
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.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Prevention
- Masking
- None
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 18 Years to — (Adult, Older Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
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
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Perceived Message Effectiveness (PME)
Time Frame: ~10 minute computer survey immediately after seeing messages
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? 1. Not at all, 2=Very little, 3=Somewhat, 4=Quite a bit, 5=A great deal).
Secondary Outcomes
- Intention to reduce meat consumption(~10 minute computer survey immediately after seeing messages)
- Attention(~10 minute computer survey immediately after seeing messages)
- Cognitive elaboration(~10 minute computer survey immediately after seeing messages)
- Negative affect(~10 minute computer survey immediately after seeing messages)
- Social interactions(~10 minute computer survey immediately after seeing messages)