Promoting Healthier Eating Among Children in Restaurants

Restaurants are normative eating contexts for many families. Restaurant meals tend to be higher in calories and lower in nutritional quality than those prepared at home. Targeting children's food selection in restaurants has the potential to improve diet quality, attenuate excess energy intake, and shape healthy habits. The objective of this study is to make healthier kids' meal options more appealing and easier to choose via an in-restaurant intervention that combines repeated exposure and choice architecture strategies. Six locations of a quick-service restaurant will be paired based on income levels in the surrounding census tracts. A location from each pair will be randomized to each study group (intervention, control). Recruitment and data collection will be conducted across 3 cohorts, with recruitment conducted during a family's regular visit. Study participation will involve 7 more visits to the location where the family was recruited, 6 of which will be during an exposure period of about 2 months. Families in intervention restaurants will receive placemats promoting healthier featured kids' meals. Participating families will also receive a frequent diner card which, after purchasing one of the featured healthier kids' meals across 6 occasions, makes them eligible for a free kids' meal of their choice during a predetermined redemption period. In the control group, generic placemats will be provided, and participating families will be provided with frequent diner cards that can be used for any kids' meals. The aims of this study are: (1) to test effects of a healthier kids' meal intervention on children's meal orders, and (2) to test effects of a healthier kids' meal intervention on children's dietary intake. It is hypothesized that (1a) children in the intervention restaurants will be more likely than controls to select one of the promoted healthier kids' meals at post-test, (1b) children in the intervention group will order fewer calories and desserts and less saturated fat, sodium, and sugar at post-test versus controls, (1c) the promoted healthier meals will make up a greater percentage of kids' meals ordered in intervention restaurants versus controls, based on sales data across the study period, and (2) compared to controls, children in the intervention group will consume fewer calories and less saturated fat, sodium, and sugar in the restaurant at post-test.

Inclusion Criteria: * Fluent in English (parent/guardian \& child) * 18 years or older (parent/ guardian) * Between the ages of 4-8 years (child) * Eats food from restaurants at least 2-3 times per month (child) * Does not have allergies that preclude safe participation in the study (child) * Eating a meal in the restaurant at the time of recruitment/baseline assessment * Did not participate in pilot phase of this study, which involved taste tests of possible healthier meal options at the same restaurant chain Exclusion Criteria: * Is under 18 years of age (parent/ guardian) * Does not have a child in the range of 4-8 years * Does not speak English fluently (parent/guardian \& child) * Does not eat food from a restaurant at least 2-3 times per month (child) * Has food allergies that preclude safe participation in the study (child) * Not eating a meal in the restaurant at recruitment/baseline * Participated in pilot phase of this study, which involved taste tests of possible healthier meal options at the same restaurant chain