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Behavioral Design Strategies Improve Healthy Food Sales in a Military Cafeteria
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2 2025
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Source: Am J Health Promot. 39(2):234-243
[PDF-131.64 KB]
Details:
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Alternative Title:Am J Health Promot
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Personal Author:
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Description:Purpose:
This study examined the use of behavioral design strategies to improve healthier food sales.
Design:
A quasi-experimental, one-group, repeated measures design examined changes in food sales following behavioral design adjustments.
Setting:
United States military base hospital dining facility.
Subjects:
U.S. military service members, retirees, and civilian employees.
Intervention:
Behavioral design changes included placement, layout, messaging, default healthy bundling, a stoplight rating system, strategic positioning of healthy items on menu boards, and an increase in healthier snacks.
Measures:
Food sales were assessed by point-of-sales data.
Analysis:
T-tests examined total sales of each food adjusted weekly between baseline and intervention and intervention and post-intervention. 16 food items targeted by the intervention were examined. Weekly food sales were calculated for the 18-week baseline, 18-week intervention, and 9-week post-intervention. Further, analysis estimated negative binomial models for food item sales.
Results:
The hospital dining facility served 600 to 900 meals per day. Weekly foods sales decreased during the intervention for desserts, cooked starches, hummus, and yogurt (P ≤ 0.01). Sales increased during the intervention for fruit cups, cooked vegetables, vegetable and turkey burgers, grilled chicken, packaged salads, French fries, hamburgers, and hot dogs (P ≤ 0.02).
Conclusion:
This study demonstrates that a mixture of behavioral design strategies can be operationalized with reasonable fidelity and can lead to increases in the sales of some healthy foods in military worksites.
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Source:
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Pubmed ID:39420551
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC11663086
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Document Type:
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Funding:
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Volume:39
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Issue:2
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