Ultraprocessed Foods in Colombia
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Enrollment
- 2,000
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Purchase intention
Study Overview
Brief Summary
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.
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:
- Warning label + Character
- Warning label only
- Barcode control label + Character
- 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:
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Factorial
- Primary Purpose
- Prevention
- Masking
- None
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 12 Years to 17 Years (Child)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
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.
Arms & Interventions
Warning label + Character
Intervention: Warning label (Behavioral)
Barcode control label + Character
Intervention: Barcode control label (Behavioral)
Warning label only
Intervention: Without character (Behavioral)
Warning label only
Intervention: Warning label (Behavioral)
Barcode control label + Character
Intervention: Character (Behavioral)
Barcode control label only
Intervention: Barcode control label (Behavioral)
Barcode control label only
Intervention: Without character (Behavioral)
Warning label + Character
Intervention: Character (Behavioral)
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Purchase intention
Time Frame: During ~15 minute online survey
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.
Risk perception
Time Frame: During ~15 minute online survey
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).
Secondary Outcomes
- Perceived Message Effectiveness(During ~15 minute online survey)