The Dietary Intervention in e-Shopping Trial

• Sponsor: The George Institute (Other)
• Overall Status: Completed
• CT.gov ID: NCT00352508
• Collaborator: (none)
• Enrollment: 500
• Location: 1
• Duration (Months): 3
• Patients Per Site Per Month: 167.2

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

The supermarket industry now services many customers through online food shopping over the Internet. The Internet shopping process offers a novel opportunity for the modification of dietary patterns. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects on consumers' purchases of saturated fat of a fully automated computerised system that provided real-time, personally tailored advice recommending foods lower in saturated fat.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Behaviour	Behavioral: Dietary advice	N/A

Detailed Description

Objective The supermarket industry now services many customers through online food shopping over the Internet. The Internet shopping process offers a novel opportunity for the modification of dietary patterns. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects on consumers' purchases of saturated fat of a fully automated computerised system that provided real-time, personally tailored advice recommending foods lower in saturated fat.

Design Blinded, randomized controlled trial.

Setting & Participants Consumers using a commercial on-line Internet shopping site between February and June 2004.

Intervention Individuals assigned to intervention received fully automated individually tailored advice that recommended specific switches from selected products higher in saturated fat to alternate similar products lower in saturated fat. Participants assigned to control received general non-specific advice about how to eat a diet lower in saturated fat.

Outcome measure The percent of food purchased that was saturated fat. Results There were 497 randomised participants, mean age 40 each shopping for an average of about 3 people. The amount of saturated fat in the foods purchased by the intervention group was 0.66% lower (95% confidence interval 0.48-0.84, p<0.0001) than in the control group. The effects of the intervention were sustained over time and there was no difference in the average cost of the food bought by each group.

Conclusions Fully automated, personally tailored dietary advice offered to customers doing Internet shopping can bring about changes in food purchasing habits that are likely to have significant public health implications. Because implementation is simple to initiate and maintain this strategy would likely be highly cost-effective.

Study Design

• Study Type: Interventional
• Allocation: Randomized
• Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: Double
• Primary Purpose: Educational/Counseling/Training
• Official Title: The Dietary Intervention in e-Shopping Trial
• Study Start Date: Sep 1, 2004
• Study Completion Date: Dec 1, 2004

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

1. The percent of food purchased that was saturated fat. []

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 Years and Older
• Sexes Eligible for Study: All
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Inclusion Criteria:

• Consumers using a commercial on-line Internet shopping site between February and June

Exclusion Criteria:

Children, non-internet shoppers

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Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	The George Institute	Sydney	New South Wales	Australia	2050

Sponsors and Collaborators

• The George Institute

Investigators

• Principal Investigator: Bruce Neal, PhD, The George Institute

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Publications

None provided.

• ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00352508
• Other Study ID Numbers: Diet2006
• First Posted: Jul 14, 2006
• Last Update Posted: Jul 14, 2006
• Last Verified: Mar 1, 2006

• Keywords provided by , ,: Internet, dietary advice, saturated fat

Study Results

No Results Posted as of Jul 14, 2006