Discrete Choice Experiment on Financial Incentives for Engaging Young Adults in Vaping Cessation Programs.

Introduction: Contingency management involves rewarding individuals based on objective evidence of behavioral changes. This study explores preferences for financial incentives in vaping cessation programs.

Methods: A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted among young adult current e-cigarette users aged 19-29.

Did COVID-19 influence fruit and vegetable consumption? Explaining and comparing pandemic peak and post-peak periods.

The COVID-19 pandemic, one of the worst global health crises in the last century, impacted nearly every aspect of people's lives, including their dietary choices and food consumption patterns. It arrived during a long shift in American diets featuring increasingly large portions of processed foods as well as fruit and vegetable consumption that is well below recommended levels. Improving the latter has been a key part of policymakers' efforts to improve consumers' diets.

Health Prompts Affect Consideration of Health but Not Intertemporal Preferences While Promoting Healthier Food Choices.

Diet-related diseases impact populations across the globe. While intertemporal preferences-a fundamental preference for the distribution of benefits across time-have been used to explain low-quality food choices, the recent literature proposes another cause: inattention to the future implications (or opportunity costs) of the options faced. Food choices tend to become habitual to conserve cognitive resources, rather than carefully modeling future health impacts.

Comparing the impact of simple and educational point-of-decision messages on nutritional choice outcomes.

Emerging evidence suggests that point-of-decision messages may be an effective way to promote healthy food choices. Previous studies show improvements in overall nutritional quality, as well as increases in underconsumed food categories, such as fruits and vegetables, and underconsumed nutrients of public health concern, like dietary fiber. However, there have been multiple approaches used for delivering point-of-decision messages, including very brief messages that remind individuals to consider health during choice, as well as longer messages providing educational information about health benefits.

Emotional responses to COVID-19 stressors increase information avoidance about an important unrelated health threat.

The COVID-19 pandemic, like other crises, has had direct and indirect impacts on individuals, many of which have been negative. While a large body of research has examined the impacts of COVID-19 on people's lives, there is little evidence about how COVID-19 affects decision-making broadly. Emotional responses to COVID-19-related stressors, such as illness and income loss, provide a pathway for these stressors to affect decision-making.

Evaluating the relative impact of multiple healthy food choice interventions on choice process variables and choices.

Fiscal tools-taxes and/or subsidies-are increasingly used to address diet-related health problems. However, some studies have found that these tools are markedly more effective if attention is drawn to the tax or subsidy, suggesting that the price change alone may go unnoticed in the complex food environments that consumers face. Interventions that prompt individuals to consider health during choice show promise for promoting healthy food choices in both simple laboratory settings and complex, real-world markets.

Consideration of nutrients of public health concern highlighted in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 among a large sample of US primary shoppers.

The objective of this research is to estimate the proportion of consumers who consider nutrients identified in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 (DGA) as being of public health concern during food choice using a large, population-weighted sample of U.S. residents.

Active Consideration of Future Health Can Be Prompted by Simple Health Messages and Improves Nutritional Quality of Food Choices.

Many choices that people face daily have implications for future health and well-being. Choices about what foods to purchase and consume are one of the most frequent-and universal choices-that people must make. The ongoing rise of overweight and obesity rates-and associated diet-related diseases-in the US and many other countries illustrates the future health consequences of low-quality dietary choices.

US Consumer Identification of the Health Benefits of Dietary Fiber and Consideration of Fiber When Making Food Choices.

The purposes of this study were to (1) determine beliefs in the health benefits of dietary fiber, an under-consumed nutrient of public health concern, and (2) determine the relationship between beliefs about dietary fiber and consideration of fiber when making food choices. We conducted a nationally representative within-subject randomized online survey of 42,018 US primary shoppers in May-June 2021. Participants selected health benefits they believed were associated with consumption of fiber from a list of six benefits recognized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), one indirect benefit, and one unrelated benefit.

High BMI Predicts Attention to Less Healthy Product Sets: Can a Prompt Lead to Consideration of Healthier Sets of Products?

While the food environment has been implicated in diet-related health disparities, individuals' ability to shape the food environment by limiting attention to a subset of products has not been studied. We examine the relationship between BMI category and consideration set-the products the individual considers before making a final choice-in an online hypothetical shopping experiment. Specifically, we focus on the healthiness of the consideration set the individual selected.

The Relationship between Bodyweight Status and Weight Perception Explains Differences in Calories Ordered in a Food Choice Exercise.

Understanding food choice is critical to be able to address the rise in obesity rates around the globe. In this paper, we examine the relationship between measured (BMI, using self-reported height and weight) and perceived weight status with the number of calories ordered in a controlled online food choice exercise. A total of 1044 participants completed an online food choice exercise in which they selected ingredients for a sandwich from five categories: meat/protein, cheese, spread/dressing, bread, and vegetables.

Point-of-Decision Prompts Increase Dietary Fiber Content of Consumers' Food Choices in an Online Grocery Shopping Simulation.

Only 5% of Americans consume the recommended amount of dietary fiber. In an online simulated shopping experiment, we examined whether a fiber-focused point-of-decision prompt (PDP) would influence consumers to choose food products that were higher in this important nutrient. We hypothesized that participants exposed to the dietary fiber PDP would choose products with more dietary fiber/serving than those who were not exposed to the PDP.

Determinants of gluten-free diet adoption among individuals without celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

Objectives: Gluten-free (GF) foods are typically less nutritious and more expensive than their gluten-containing variants, yet people without a diagnosed gluten sensitivity continue to adopt this diet. There is a lack of research about what factors drive people without Celiac disease or non-Celiac gluten sensitivity to follow the GF diet.

Methods: A nationally representative sample of 2982 US residents without a diagnosed gluten sensitivity were surveyed about their attitudes, perceptions, and experiences with the GF diet.

The effect of presenting relative calorie information on calories ordered.

In this research, we tested the effect of a novel method of presenting calorie information-highlighting relative differences in calories among ingredients. We conducted an online hypothetical food choice experiment where 633 participants selected the ingredients for a sandwich from five categories: meat/protein, cheese, spread/dressing, bread, and vegetables. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of four calorie information conditions: 1) a condition in which no information about calories was provided, 2) a condition in which calorie information was provided for each ingredient, 3) a condition in which calorie information was presented relative to the highest calorie item, and 4) a condition in which calorie information was presented relative to the lowest calorie item.

Does prior knowledge of food fraud affect consumer behavior? Evidence from an incentivized economic experiment.

This study uses a laboratory experiment to examine whether prior knowledge of food fraud persistently affects consumer behavior. We invited regular consumers of olive oil to participate in an olive oil valuation experiment. We used a within-subject design to compare consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for Italian extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) before and after receiving information about labeling scandals in the Italian olive oil industry.

Healthy Food Labels Tailored to a High-Risk, Minority Population More Effectively Promote Healthy Choices than Generic Labels.

The decades-long increase in obesity in the US has led to a number of policies aimed at improving diets, which are thought to play a significant role in obesity. Many of these policies seek to influence individuals' behaviors. Front-of-package labels providing salient, easily interpretable information to consumers have exhibited promise in helping people identify and choose healthier foods.

Cognitive aids and food choice: Real-time calorie counters reduce calories ordered and correct biases in calorie estimates.

Studies of the effect of calorie information on food choices in food-away-from-home settings have identified minor to insignificant changes in calories ordered. An element of the choice process that may play an important role in influencing the total caloric content of a meal has received little attention: how individuals track the total number of calories selected when choosing multiple items. We study the effects of automating this potentially costly cognitive process using technology.

Exercise and the Timing of Snack Choice: Healthy Snack Choice is Reduced in the Post-Exercise State.

Acute exercise can induce either a compensatory increase in food intake or a reduction in food intake, which results from appetite suppression in the post-exercise state. The timing of food choice-choosing for immediate or later consumption-has been found to influence the healthfulness of foods consumed. To examine both of these effects, we tested in our study whether the timing of food choice interacts with exposure to exercise to impact food choices such that choices would differ when made prior to or following an exercise bout.

Retail-based healthy food point-of-decision prompts (PDPs) increase healthy food choices in a rural, low-income, minority community.

This study examines the potential for point-of-decision prompts (PDPs) to promote healthier food choices among shoppers in a rural, low-income, minority community. We hypothesized that a narrowly defined PDP (focused on fresh produce) would be easier for shoppers to remember than a broadly defined PDP (focused on any healthy items), resulting in a higher proportion of healthy items purchased. PDPs were placed at the entrance to a supermarket in Mission, South Dakota, United States of America, on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation for alternating time periods, July 9-10, 2017.

The effect of ingredient-specific calorie information on calories ordered.

Providing calorie labeling is a widely used strategy to combat obesity. However, there is little evidence that the availability of calorie information at food-away-from-home establishments has an effect on food choices. Listing calorie information for each ingredient, though, may allow customers to avoid high-calorie items that add little to their enjoyment.

Impact of schoolchildren's involvement in the design process on the effectiveness of healthy food promotion materials.

Marketing techniques may improve children's vegetable consumption. However, student participation in the design of marketing materials may increase the material's salience, while also improving children's commitment and attitudes towards healthy eating. The impact of student-led design of vegetable promotional materials on choice and consumption was investigated using 1614 observations of students' vegetable choice and plate waste in four public elementary schools in Kearney, Nebraska.