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，通过行为经济分析的情况健康老龄化（R01）的回应。这一提议呼吁行为经济学家和临床医生进行探索，以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能促使老年人购买营养价值更高的食品。具体来说，我们将评估一项新的营养评分计划（NuValTM）的效果，该计划即将由中西部最大的零售杂货连锁店之一Hy-VeeTM在爱荷华州东部部署，该计划将对该地区老年人的一般购买行为进行抽样。此外，我们将通过营养评分来检查产品总销量的变化，这可能归因于干预，作为验证和比较我们在该地区的老年人人群中发现的行为变化的一种手段。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。采用双管管下的方法捕捉NuValTM营养评分系统的效果：1)对爱荷华州东部50岁及以上的志愿者进行前瞻性数据收集，研究NuValTM干预前后的购物行为，获得NuValTM干预对老年消费者食品购买行为的影响；2)通过对不同NuValTM评分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群购物行为的影响程度。

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.