Resetting Nutritional Defaults: Testing the Effect of NuVal on Older Adults

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案是对RFA-AG-10-008《通过情况的行为经济学分析实现健康老龄化》（R 01）的回应。这一提议呼吁行为经济学家和临床医生探索开发和测试默认选项，以促进更健康的行为。本研究将探讨不对称家长式作风在多大程度上可以激励老年人购买更高营养价值的食物。具体来说，我们将评估一个新的营养评分计划（NuValTM），很快将部署在东部爱荷华州的Hy-VeeTM，在中西部最大的零售杂货连锁店之一，对一般购买行为的样本地区老年人的影响。此外，我们还将通过营养评分来检查项目总体销售量的变化，这些变化可能归因于干预措施，作为验证和比较我们在老年人群体中发现的行为变化与该地区普通人群的一种手段。从理论上讲，评分系统应该帮助消费者克服默认购买他们有经验的产品或他们错误地认为是健康的产品的现状偏见，并设置一个新的默认值，即依靠NuValTM评分来指导购买。一个双管齐下的方法将捕捉NuValTM营养评分系统的效果：1）进行前瞻性数据收集，以检查一组50岁及以上的爱荷华州东部人的NuValTM干预前后的购物行为，他们是爱荷华州大学星星登记处的志愿者研究对象，以获得关于NuValTM干预对老年消费者食品购买行为影响的信息; 2）通过对具有不同NuValTM评分的各种产品的销售量进行中断时间序列分析，测量NuValTM评分的引入对整个当地人口的购物行为的影响程度。 公共卫生相关性：美国人选择食物的方式与我们的肥胖流行病和老年人的其他相关慢性病密切相关。一种新的评分系统（NuVal）提供了一种允许消费者用单一数字识别食品营养质量的方法。这种营养系统有可能提供影响老年人饮食方式的重要公共卫生信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is in response to RFA-AG-10-008, Healthy Aging through Behavioral Economic Analyses of Situations (R01). This proposal calls for exploration by behavioral economists and clinicians to develop and test default options to promote healthier behaviors. This project will examine the extent to which asymmetric paternalism can motivate older adults to purchase foods of higher nutritional value. Specifically, we will evaluate the effects of a new nutritional scoring program (NuValTM) that soon will be deployed in eastern Iowa by Hy-VeeTM, one of the largest retail grocery store chains in the Midwest, on the general purchase behaviors of a sample of area older adults. Additionally, we will examine changes in overall sales volume of items by nutritional score that could be attributed to the intervention as a means of validating and comparing the behavior changes we find in the older adult population to the general populace for this area. In theory the scoring system should help consumers overcome a status quo bias of defaulting to purchasing products with which they have experience, or which they mistakenly believe to be healthful, and set a new default, namely, relying on a NuValTM score to guide purchasing. A two-pronged approach will capture the NuValTM nutritional scoring system effect: 1) perform prospective data collection to examine pre and post- NuValTM intervention shopping behavior of a group of eastern Iowans age 50 and over, who are volunteer research subjects in the University of Iowa's STAR Registry, to obtain information on the NuValTM intervention's effect on food purchasing behavior of older consumers; 2) measure the extent to which the introduction of NuValTM scoring affects the shopping behavior of the entire local population through the use of interrupted time series analysis of sales volumes of a variety of products with varying NuValTM scores. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The way in which Americans select food is closely related to our obesity epidemic and other related chronic diseases in older adults. A novel scoring system (NuVal) provides a means of allowing consumers to identify the nutritional quality of a food with a single number. This nutritional system has the potential to provide important public health messages that affect the way older adults eat.