Little is known about how calorie menu labeling in restaurants is likely to affect children and adolescents. Thus, the specific aims of this study are to: 1) determine the extent to which calorie menu labeling affects school-age children’s and adolescents’ eating behaviors, nutritional knowledge, and awareness and use of calorie information; 2) examine the appropriateness of using receipts and a food/drink item questionnaire to define a meal by also collecting data on actual or planned consumption; and 3) explore whether chain fast-food and full-service restaurants alter the nutritional content of their menu items after menu labeling. This study will build on extensive baseline data collected on nearly 1,700 children and adolescents from 2010-2012, before the implementation of the federal menu labeling regulation scheduled to take effect in 2013. For this project, investigators will collect two years of post-menu labeling data on an equivalent number of children and adolescents dining at 80 fast-food restaurants in four large, diverse New England cities. They also will continue to collect restaurant menus for 18 restaurant chains, as was done pre-menu labeling, to determine if restaurants make changes to their menus after menu labeling.
Start Date: March 2013
ID #: 70739
Principal Investigator: Jason Block, MD, MPH
Co-Principal Investigator: Suzanne Condon, MS
Organization: Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc.
Funding Round: Round 7
Age Groups: Adolescents (grades 9 to 12), Adults and Families, Elementary-age children (grades K to 5), Preschool-age children (ages 3 to 5), Young adolescents (grades 6 to 8)
Race/Ethnicity: African American or Black, Latino(a) or Hispanic, Multi-racial/ethnic
Keywords: Community setting, Fast food, Food outlet, Menu Labeling, Point-of-decision prompts, Restaurant, Urban
States: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island
Focus Area: Food Retail
Resource Type: Grant Summary
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