The Effect of a Descriptive Norm Promoting Vegetable Selection in a Workplace Restaurant Setting: an Observational Study

Completed

• Conditions: Eating Behaviour
• Interventions: Other: Social Norms Poster

• Registration Number: NCT02603263
• Lead Sponsor: University of Birmingham

Brief Summary

Encouraging individuals to eat fruit and vegetables is difficult. However, recent evidence suggests that using social-based information might help. For instance, it has been shown that if people think that others are eating lots of fruit and vegetables, that they will consume more food to match the 'norm'.The purpose of this study was to determine whether social norm messages could be used to enhance vegetable purchases in workplace restaurants, in an observational study.

Detailed Description

In this study the investigators hypothesised that placing posters containing social norm messages promoting vegetable consumption in three workplace restaurants, would increase the purchase of meals with vegetables, and that this effect would be sustained over time. The investigators recruited three restaurants to this study. For two weeks (Pre-intervention phase) the investigators used till receipts to monitor the number of meals sold with or without vegetables at baseline. For the following two weeks (Intervention phase) the investigators placed social norms posters around the three restaurants, while continuing to collect till receipts. After this, the posters were removed, and receipts were monitored for a final two weeks (Post-intervention).

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2015-02
• Primary Completion: 2015-08
• Study Completion: 2015-08
• Study First Submitted: 2015-10-22
• Status Verified: 2015-11
• Study First Submitted QC: 2015-11-09
• Last Update Submitted: 2015-11-09
• Study First Posted: 2015-11-11
• Last Update Posted: 2015-11-11

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 9445

Inclusion Criteria

• Purchase of a meal at one of the restaurants

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Exclusion Criteria

• None

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Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Workplace Restaurant Customers	Social Norms Poster	1 Group (Workplace Restaurant Customers) across 3 sites (data to be combined at end of study) Study consists of three phases: 1. Pre Intervention 2. Intervention 3. Post Intervention All phases lasted two weeks and included monitoring till receipts for meals (these were automatically generated and held on the tills electronically). The intervention phase consisted of posters being displayed in the restaurants, featuring a Social Norms Poster.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Percentage of meals containing vegetables	7 months

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Birmingham; 🇬🇧 Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom