Healthy Options At Pantries (HOAP) Study | NCT07729436

NCT07729436

Overview

NCT ID: NCT07729436
Lead Sponsor: Northwestern UniversityOTHER
Official Title: Community-engaged Design and Implementation of a Behavioral Economics Food Choice Intervention in Food Pantries to Improve Cardiovascular Health
Brief Summary: This study will evaluate a digital nudge intervention, Healthy Options At Pantries (HOAP), in the online food pantries of three large charitable food organizations. The study will use a hybrid effectiveness-implementation design, meaning it will evaluate whether the intervention works and how it can best be rolled out in an online food pantry setting. Intervention effectiveness will be evaluated using an interrupted time series analysis to identify changes in how healthy foods ordered by shoppers are (primary outcome) by comparing food ordering data over time before and after HOAP is introduced. The study will also evaluate the possibility of collecting dietary and clinical outcomes in a small subgroup of online pantry shoppers over time comparing both in-person and at-home approaches.
Conditions

Status and Timeline

Status: Not yet recruiting
Last Update Posted: Jul 27, 2026Actual
Start Date: Aug 1, 2026Estimated
Primary Completion Date: Jan 31, 2028Estimated
Completion Date

Participation Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study: Adult (18-64)Older Adult (65+)
Sexes Eligible for Study: All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Yes
Eligibility Criteria: Eligibility Criteria:

Adults age 18 years or older

Speak English or Spanish

Access to a smartphone

Have ordered from the online food pantry at least half of the available times over the past 6 pantry eligible periods (for example, at least 3 times in the past 6 weeks for online food pantries that allow weekly ordering or at least 3 times in the past 6 months for online food pantries that allow monthly ordering), during the 6-month period prior to implementation of the HOAP program (i.e., months -6 to -1)

Plan to continue ordering from the online food pantry for the next 6 months

Exclusion Criteria:

Weigh more than 300 pounds

Have a pacemaker, defibrillator, or other cardiac implant

Plan to move out of metro Chicago in the next 6 months

Study Plan

Study Type: Interventional
Phase: Not Applicable
Enrollment: 300Estimated
Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: N/A
Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)

Contacts and Locations

Central Contacts: Emily Research Study Coordinator, MSContact
emily.romero@northwestern.edu

Similar Studies

Participant Group/Arms

HOAP Intervention CohortExperimental

Online pantry shoppers will receive the behavioral digital nudge intervention informed by the Healthy Eating Research guidelines. Nudges include: 1) traffic light labeling of foods as green (choose often), yellow (choose sometimes), or orange (choose rarely) based on levels of saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar, displayed using colored dots and borders; 2) traffic light filters for food items; 3) choice architecture to display healthier items first; 4) a nutrition summary bar to display the number and proportion of items in cart by traffic light color; and 5) opt-out healthy default nudges styled as Healthy Bonus Items. A subgroup of adult shoppers will participate in a feasibility study comparing in-person to remote collection of dietary and clinical outcomes. Subgroup participants will complete ASA24 diet recalls and provide blood pressure, weight, and body composition measurements.

Behavioral: Behavioral economics-based Healthy Options At Pantries (HOAP) digital nudge intervention