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“通过情况行为经济分析实现健康老龄化”(R01) 的回应。该提案呼吁行为经济学家和临床医生进行探索，开发和测试默认选项以促进更健康的行为。该项目将研究不对称家长式作风在多大程度上激励老年人购买营养价值更高的食物。具体来说，我们将评估中西部最大的零售杂货连锁店之一 Hy-VeeTM 即将在爱荷华州东部部署的新营养评分程序 (NuValTM) 对地区老年人样本一般购买行为的影响。此外，我们将通过营养评分来检查商品总销量的变化，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口与该地区普通民众中发现的行为变化的一种手段。理论上，评分系统应该帮助消费者克服默认购买他们有过使用经验或错误地认为有益健康的产品的现状偏见，并设置新的默认值，即依靠 NuValTM 评分来指导购买。采取双管齐下的方法将捕获 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 岁及以上的东部爱荷华州人（爱荷华大学 STAR 登记处的志愿者研究对象）在 NuValTM 干预前后的购物行为，以获得有关 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 分数的各种产品的销售量进行间断时间序列分析，衡量 NuValTM 评分的引入对整个当地人口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老年人的肥胖流行和其他相关慢性疾病密切相关。一种新颖的评分系统（NuVal）提供了一种让消费者通过单一数字来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.