Evaluating a Healthy Restaurant Kids Meals Policy

NCT ID: NCT04330235

Last Updated: 2022-09-28

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Total Enrollment: 3480 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2019-10-13
• Study Completion Date: 2022-07-18

Brief Summary

More than a dozen municipalities have passed healthy default kids' beverage policies. These policies seek to reduce child consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) by requiring that restaurants serve only healthy beverages (e.g., water, milk, or 100% juice) instead of SSBs as the default choice with children's meals in restaurants. These policies have potential to meaningfully reduce child SSB consumption. However, there are significant gaps in our knowledge of the effects of healthy default beverage policies on children's health. This study uses a natural experiment to evaluate the effects of a healthy default beverage policy in two U.S. cities, New York City and Philadelphia, on children's fast-food restaurant meal orders and dietary intake. The primary hypothesis is that the policy will reduce children's SSB purchases and consumption, reduce children's total caloric intake, and improve diet quality at the fast-food restaurant meal and on the day of the restaurant meal.

Detailed Description

This study uses a quasi-experimental approach to evaluate the effects of a healthy default kids' beverage policy on children's fast-food restaurant meal purchases and dietary intake. Annotated receipt and survey data will be collected from parents purchasing a food or beverage for a child 2-10 years of age at fast-food restaurants. Eligible participants will be asked to participate in a telephone dietary recall the following day. Data will be collected from a repeated cross-section of children in two intervention cities implementing a healthy default kids' beverage policy (New York City and Philadelphia) and a control area not implementing the policy (northern New Jersey) before the policy is implemented and after the policy goes into effect. A difference-in-differences analytic approach will be used to compare the change in children's fast-food restaurant meal orders and dietary intake pre- to post-implementation in the intervention versus control groups. A Holm-Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons will be applied to p-values for secondary outcomes.

Conditions

Diet Habit

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: OTHER
• Study Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

Intervention Group

Children 2-10 years of age dining at fast-food restaurants in New York City and Philadelphia, where a healthy default beverage policy will be enacted.

Healthy Default Kids' Beverage Policy

Intervention Type: OTHER

The healthy default kids' beverage policy requires that all restaurants serve only healthy beverages (water, milk, or 100% juice) instead of sugary beverages as the default beverage with children's meals. The policy has been enacted in New York City and Philadelphia and will go into effect in April 2020.

Control Group

Children 2-10 years of age dining at fast-food restaurants in northern New Jersey, where a healthy default beverage policy will not be enacted.

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Healthy Default Kids' Beverage Policy

The healthy default kids' beverage policy requires that all restaurants serve only healthy beverages (water, milk, or 100% juice) instead of sugary beverages as the default beverage with children's meals. The policy has been enacted in New York City and Philadelphia and will go into effect in April 2020.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Other Intervention Names

Healthy Restaurant Kids' Meals Policy; Healthy Default Beverage Policy; Healthy Default Beverage Law; Healthy-by-Default Policy

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Adult 18 years of age or older
• Parent or legal guardian of a child 2-10 years of age
• Purchasing at least one food or beverage item for the child at the restaurant (if purchasing foods or beverages for multiple children, only items purchased for the youngest child 2-10 years of age will be included)
• Able to speak and understand English or Spanish

Additional criteria for dietary recalls:

• Parent or legal guardian 18 years of age or older is present for the recall
• If child for whom the restaurant meal was purchased is 6 years of age or older, child is present for the recall
• If child for whom the restaurant meal was purchased is 9 years of age or older, the child is present for the recall and is able to speak and understand English or Spanish

Exclusion Criteria

• Younger than 18 years of age
• Is not a parent or legal guardian to a child 2-10 years of age
• Is not purchasing one or more food or beverage items for the child at the restaurant
• Does not speak or understand English or Spanish

Additional criteria for dietary recalls:

• Parent or legal guardian is not present for the recall
• The restaurant meal was purchased for a child 6 years of age or older, who is not present for the recall
• Child 9 years of age or older, for whom the restaurant meal was purchased, is not able to speak or understand English or Spanish

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

Sponsors

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Pennsylvania

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Minnesota

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

RTI International

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Alyssa Moran, ScD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Angie Cradock, ScD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)

Locations

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

RTI, International

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

1R01HD100983-01

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

HDB-NYC

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id