Diet, Eating, and Lifestyle Improvement for Valued Employees and Their Relatives

DEAL Trial: Diet, Eating, and Lifestyle Improvement for Valued Employees and Their Relatives

Food is widely understood as a cornerstone of health, however multiple barriers stand between well-intentioned, well-informed consumers and the adoption of healthier dietary practices. This mixed-methods randomized controlled trial (RCT) will measure the impact of offering a Community Sustained Agriculture (CSA) share as an employee benefit on household food environments (diets), eating behaviors, and lifestyles.

Aim: We will test a strategy to increase frequency of cooking meals at home and consumption of healthful, fresh foods by providing study participants with a CSA membership.

Study design: This is a mixed method randomized controlled trial, with survey, home-food audit, and interview components.

Hypothesis: The intervention group who received a CSA membership as an employee benefit will prepare more meals at home and consume more healthful, fresh foods compared to the control group (no CSA participation).

Using both qualitative and quantitative assessments, outcomes will be measured using 3 primary measures:

1. Home food audits at baseline and at week 8 of the intervention. A random selection of participants will have home-food audits completed by members of the research team - those not randomly selected will complete the home-food audit themselves.
2. Self-administered surveys, including food frequency questionnaires, at baseline, week 8, and week 16.
3. Randomly selected participants will be asked to participate in qualitative interviews at the close of the 16-week intervention period.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Individuals who are non-faculty employees at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Pennsylvania Health System.
• Individuals who score below the median (50th percentile) on dinners prepared at home on screening survey.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Individuals who are under the age of 18.
• Individuals who are already have a CSA membership.