Developing and Evaluating Product Messaging

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Cancer of Rectum; Cancer of Colon
• Interventions: Other: Control; Other: Combined Warning Labels and Tax; Other: Warning Labels; Other: Tax

• Registration Number: NCT04716010
• Lead Sponsor: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Brief Summary

Purpose: To assess the impact of taxes, warnings, and a combination of taxes and warnings on US adults' decisions to purchase products that contain red meat in an online grocery store.

Procedures (methods): Participants will be recruited from Prime Panels (an online panel research company). Following online consent, participants will be assigned to one of four trial arms: 1) Control (no warning and no tax), 2) Warnings (all products that contain red meat have a health warning and environmental warning), 3) Tax (30% tax on products that contain red meat), and 4) Combined warning and tax (all products that contain red meat will have the two warnings and a 30% tax). Then, participant will enter an online grocery store reflecting their assigned arm. The participant will be instructed to complete a shopping task in the online grocery store. After completing the shopping task, participants will be redirected to an online survey and answer a series of questions about the shopping task, labels (excluding tax and control groups), and taxes (excluding warning and control groups). Questions will also include standard demographic and health related variables.

Detailed Description

Participants will be recruited from Prime Panels (an online panel research company). Following online consent, participants will be randomly assigned to one of four trial arms affecting the appearance of an online grocery store. Once in the online grocery store, participants will complete a shopping task. The participants will have 9 specified items to add to their shopping cart (1 pizza, 1 burrito, Burger patties \[meat or vegetarian\], Breakfast sausages \[meat or vegetarian\], 1 frozen individual meal, 1 loaf of bread, 1 sandwich filling \[for example, ham, turkey, or peanut butter\], 1 pack of tortillas, 1 taco filling \[for example, steak, chicken, or beans\]). Participants will be informed that they will not be spending any of their own money to complete the shopping task. After completing the shopping task, participants will be redirected to a survey. They will provide self-reported responses to survey questions (e.g. perceived healthfulness from eating red meat, perceived risk of cancer from eating red meat, thinking about the health/environmental harms of food products). Participants will also answer demographic and health related questions.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2021-01-14
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-01-19
• Study First Posted: 2021-01-20
• Status Verified: 2021-08
• Study Start: 2021-10-18
• Primary Completion: 2021-10-28
• Study Completion: 2021-10-28
• Results First Submitted: 2022-08-12
• Results First Submitted QC: 2022-08-12
• Results First Posted: 2022-09-09
• Last Update Submitted: 2023-08-03
• Last Update Posted: 2023-08-18

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 4160

Inclusion Criteria

• 18 years or older
• Consumes red meat at least once per week.
• Responsible for at least 50% of grocery shopping for the household.
• Lives in the United States

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Exclusion Criteria

• Individuals who have participated in research studies from previous aims of this research.

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Control	Control	Products that contain red meat will not have warning labels or an increase in price.
Combined Warning Labels and Tax	Combined Warning Labels and Tax	The Combined Warning Labels and Tax arm features both the warning labels and tax. The warning labels are black octagons with white text that appear next to images of products that contain red meat. One label says "WARNING: Eating red meat contributes to colon and rectal cancer" and the other label says "WARNING: Eating red meat harms the environment." The tax is a 30% increase in the price of red meat products.
Warning Labels	Warning Labels	The warning labels are black octagons with white text that appear next to images of products that contain red meat. One label says "WARNING: Eating red meat contributes to colon and rectal cancer" and the other label says "WARNING: Eating red meat harms the environment."
Tax	Tax	The tax is a 30% increase in the price of products that contain red meat.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Percentage of Red Meat Containing Products	At completion of ~15 minute shopping task	The percentage of products in a participant's shopping basket that contain red meat.
Count of Products That Contain Red Meat	At completion of ~15 minute shopping task	The number of products in a participant's shopping basket that contain red meat.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Total Sodium	At completion of ~15 minute shopping task	Total grams of sodium of products in a participant's shopping basket. This will be calculated by adding together the total sodium from each product in the participant's shopping basket. Sodium for each product will come from the product's nutrition facts panel. All products in the store are real life products that have designated nutrition facts panels.
Intention to Reduce	~15 minutes post-test computer survey following the ~15 minute shopping task	Intention to reduce red meat consumption in the next 30 days. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher intention to reduce red meat consumption in the next 30 days.
Specific Perceived Environmental Risk	~15 minutes post-test computer survey following the ~15 minute shopping task	Perceived environmental harm of specific red meat products (burgers, pepperoni pizza, and deli ham). Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with lower scores representing worse for the environment and higher scores representing better for the environment.
Perceived Cost of the Burger Product.	~15 minutes post-test computer survey following the ~15 minute shopping task	Perceived cost of the burger product. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with lower scores representing less expensive and higher scores representing more expensive.
Total Calories	At completion of ~15 minute shopping task	Total calories of products in a participant's shopping basket. This will be calculated by adding together the total calories from each product in the participant's shopping basket. Calories for each product will come from the product's nutrition facts panel. All products in the store are real life products that have designated nutrition facts panels.
Cognitive Elaboration (Health)	~15 minutes post-test computer survey following the ~15 minute shopping task	Thinking about the health harms of food products while completing the shopping task. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher amount of thinking about health harms of food products.
Specific Perceived Healthfulness	~15 minutes post-test computer survey following the ~15 minute shopping task	Perceived healthfulness of specific red meat products (burgers, pepperoni pizza, and deli ham). Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with lower scores representing worse for health and higher scores representing better for health.
Perceived Healthfulness	~15 minutes post-test computer survey following the ~15 minute shopping task	Perceived healthfulness of eating red meat. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher perceived healthfulness of eating red meat.
Cognitive Elaboration (Price)	~15 minutes post-test computer survey following the ~15 minute shopping task	Thinking about the price of food products while completing the shopping task. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher amount of thinking about the price of food products.
Total Saturated Fat	At completion of ~15 minute shopping task	Total grams of saturated fat of products in a participant's shopping basket. This will be calculated by adding together the total saturated fat from each product in the participant's shopping basket. Saturated fat for each product will come from the product's nutrition facts panel. All products in the store are real life products that have designated nutrition facts panels.
Perceived Cancer Risk	~15 minutes post-test computer survey following the ~15 minute shopping task	Perceived risk of colon and rectal cancer from eating red meat. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher perceived risk of colon and rectal cancer from eating red meat.
Perceived Environmental Risk	~15 minutes post-test computer survey following the ~15 minute shopping task	Perceived risk of environmental harms from eating red meat. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher perceived risk of environmental harms from eating red meat.
Cognitive Elaboration (Environment)	~15 minutes post-test computer survey following the ~15 minute shopping task	Thinking about the environmental harms of food products while completing the shopping task. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher amount of thinking about the environmental harms of food products.
Perceived Cost of the Pizza Product.	~15 minutes post-test computer survey following the ~15 minute shopping task	Perceived cost of the pizza product. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with lower scores representing less expensive and higher scores representing more expensive.
Perceived Cost of the Ham Product.	~15 minutes post-test computer survey following the ~15 minute shopping task	Perceived cost of the ham product. Likert response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with lower scores representing less expensive and higher scores representing more expensive.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Carolina Population Center; 🇺🇸 Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States