Behavioral Economics to Implement a Traffic Light Nutrition Ranking System in a Network of Food Pantries: Study 2
Massachusetts General Hospital
Summary
This is a cluster randomized controlled trial of 30 food pantries affiliated with the Greater Boston Food Bank to test the use of behavioral economics (BE) tools to encourage food pantries to implement the Supporting Wellness at Pantries (SWAP) program, with the goal of fostering accurate use of SWAP traffic light labels on pantry shelves and increasing the healthfulness of foods chosen by pantry clients. Primary outcomes will be assessed at 6 and 12 months to compare the implementation and effectiveness of the SWAP program in the intervention vs. control pantries.
Description
This study will test the use of behavioral economics (BE) tools to encourage food pantries to implement the Supporting Wellness at Pantries (SWAP) program, with the goal of encouraging pantries to use SWAP traffic light labels on pantry shelves and increase the healthfulness of foods chosen by pantry clients. The study design is a 12-month cluster RCT of 30 Greater Boston Food Bank partner pantries comparing a basic SWAP implementation strategy (control, n=15) with a BE-enhanced SWAP implementation strategy (intervention, n=15). Primary outcomes assessed at 6 and 12 months will be implementati…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18–90 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * Food pantries enrolled in the study will be partner agencies of the Greater Boston Food Bank that are maximum client choice, are located within approximately 1 hour driving time of Boston (for logistical feasibility), and are not actively using traffic-light nutrition ranking. * Food pantry clients that complete assessments must be 18 years or older and speak English or Spanish. Exclusion Criteria: * Food pantries that are not affiliated with the Greater Boston Food Bank and are not maximum client choice. * Food pantry clients that do not speak English or Spanish.
Interventions
- BehavioralBehavioral economics-enhanced SWAP implementation
Intervention will include behavioral nudges at baseline and over 12 months to promote use of the SWAP nutrition program for pantries.
- BehavioralBasic SWAP implementation
Intervention will include basic information about the SWAP program and encouragement to obtain SWAP toolkits.
Location
- Massachusetts General HospitalBoston, Massachusetts