Start Date: February 2015

ID #: CAS018

Organization: Harvard School of Public Health

Project Lead: Christina Roberto

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The purpose of this project is to understand the influence of health warning labels displayed on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) on consumer perceptions. This study was commissioned in response to California’s recent proposal to place health warning labels on SSBs in the absence of data. Investigators will conduct two randomized-controlled, web-based surveys to examine how a range of six health warning labels on SSBs influence a demographically diverse group of 4,950 adolescent and adult participants’ perceptions of product healthfulness, nutrient content, health risks, and taste, as well as, the labels’ influence on purchase desires, willingness to pay for beverages, and likelihood to switch to healthier beverages. With the first survey, investigators will focus on recruiting groups with the highest consumption of SSBs which include adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 (N=1,650) and adults younger than 60 years old (N=1,650), and with the second survey they will recruit mothers of children age 6 to 11 years old (N=1,650) and focus on how the label conditions influence their perceptions of the products for their children. Participants will be recruited through Survey Sampling International and the surveys will be conducted through Qualtrics.

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