Prevention and Management of Food Allergies

NCT ID: NCT02377284

Last Updated: 2018-06-15

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 187 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2013-10-31
• Study Completion Date: 2014-09-30

Brief Summary

This pilot study will test the use of visual cues to engage food service workers in protecting patrons with food allergies. Food service workers from Philadelphia quick-service restaurants were recruited to participate in a survey of attitudes that includes an embedded randomized experiment testing an experimental cue (photograph of an allergic child) to increase workers' engagement and empathy.

Detailed Description

Aim: Investigators pilot-tested a novel strategy to engage food service workers, by using a visual cue to increase the workers empathy for and desire to protect the patrons health and safety.

Why intervene with food service workers? Both food allergies and allergenic foods are common, as is eating, making accidental ingestion of allergenic foods almost inevitable. Risks may be particularly pronounced in out-of-home contexts (restaurants, school cafeterias, etc.), where the food allergic person must rely on service workers to assure their safety. Therefore, food service workers are important partners in the prevention of adverse events.

Design: Within the context of a survey of food service workers, investigators embedded a randomized experiment. In this experiment, investigators randomly assigned survey participants to one of two conditions: a Personalized vs. Depersonalized Chef Card. Depersonalized Chef Cards included simple written instructions regarding the patron's specific food allergies, including explicit guidance regarding foods to be avoided and information regarding the seriousness of the allergy. Personalized Chef Cards included identical written instructions and information, as well as a photograph of a patron with food allergies.

Hypothesis: Service workers exposed to the Personalized (compared to Depersonalized) Chef Cards will demonstrate greater empathy, sympathy, willingness to help, and vigilance regarding food allergies and their management.

Conditions

Empathy; Food Allergy

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Intervention (personalized chef card)

Restaurant employees received a personalized chef card, which included written information about a patron's food allergies and a photograph of the patron.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Photograph

Intervention Type: OTHER

Add a photograph to a chef card.

Control (depersonalized chef card)

Restaurant employees received a depersonalized chef card, which included written information about a patron's food allergies, without a photograph of a patron.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Photograph

Add a photograph to a chef card.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Employed at a quick-service restaurant
• Speaks English

Exclusion Criteria

• Work at a table-only establishment

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Pennsylvania

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Carolyn Cannuscio

Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Carolyn C Cannuscio, ScD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Pennsylvania

References

Dupuis R, Meisel Z, Grande D, Strupp E, Kounaves S, Graves A, Frasso R, Cannuscio CC. Food allergy management among restaurant workers in a large U.S. city. Food control 63:147-57, 2016.

Reference Type: RESULT

Other Identifiers

818836

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id