Behavioral Economics to Implement a Traffic Light Nutrition Ranking System: Study 2

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.

Detailed 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 implementation of the SWAP program within pantries and improvement of client food choices and dietary quality. At the end of 12 months, the BE-enhanced SWAP implementation strategy will be adapted, updated, and offered to the 15 pantries assigned to control (waitlist) at baseline. The 15 intervention pantries will be followed without further intervention.

Eligibility Criteria

Interventions