Meals-for-Moms: Experimental Grocery Store Study

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Overweight; Obesity
• Interventions: Other: Own-Price Elasticity; Other: Cross-Price Elasticity

• Registration Number: NCT03710525
• Lead Sponsor: USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center

Brief Summary

This is a study about how the price of foods affects food buying choices at the grocery store. The price of foods can have a big impact on what people choose to buy and prices change over time. This study is being done to see how changes in food prices affect what mothers choose for their families.

Detailed Description

It is well known that the price of a given food affects the amount of that individuals will purchase. Yet little is known about how specific groups, such as obese/overweight individuals and those with lower incomes, change their food purchasing decisions depending food price changes. Evidence shows that these groups have lower quality diets and worse health outcomes than their normal weight and higher income counterparts. Therefore, it is important to gain a better understanding of how food prices changes affect purchasing decisions among these population groups in order to develop targeted nutrition interventions to improve their diet quality. To investigate this the researchers will create a laboratory-based grocery store, in which pictures of foods will be used in lieu of actual foods. Food prices will be indicated on each picture. Participants will be given play money and a budget, and asked to "purchase" foods in the mock grocery store. The price of foods will be changed throughout the study to investigate how participants change their purchasing decisions based on these price changes.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2018-10-11
• Study First Submitted QC: 2018-10-15
• Study First Posted: 2018-10-18
• Study Start: 2018-10-30
• Primary Completion: 2019-10-02
• Study Completion: 2019-10-02
• Status Verified: 2022-01
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-01-18
• Last Update Posted: 2022-02-02

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Female
• Target Recruitment: 80

Inclusion Criteria

• Have at least one child up to 18 years of age residing in the household
• Primary grocery shopper for the household
• No health conditions or food practices that substantially limit choice
• Not currently pregnant
• Consent to study design

Exclusion Criteria

• Male
• < 18 years of age
• Not a mother, or children not living with subject in their household
• No children below the age of 18 years of age
• Not the primary grocery shopper for their household
• Health conditions or food practices that substantially limit food choice
• Currently pregnant

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: FACTORIAL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Own-Price Elasticity	Own-Price Elasticity	The price of vegetables will vary (own-price elasticity) while the price of all other foods in the "mock" grocery store will remain constant.
Cross-Price Elasticity	Cross-Price Elasticity	The price of vegetables will remain constant while the price of other foods in the "mock" grocery store will vary (cross-price elasticity).

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Price elasticity of vegetables	Baseline	Percent change in the amount of vegetables purchased (gram weight) for every percent change in the price of a given food.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Nutrient density of purchased foods	Baseline	Ratio of low nutrient-dense food purchases to high nutrient-dense food purchases

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center; 🇺🇸 Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States