SynthesisPloS one2015
Differential Responses to Food Price Changes by Personal Characteristic: A Systematic Review of Experimental Studies.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The relationship between the price and demand of alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy food, sugar-sweetened beverages, and gambling: an umbrella review of systematic reviews.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Community-level interventions for improving access to food in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Community-level interventions for improving access to food in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- A systematic review, and meta-analysis, examining the prevalence of price promotions on foods and whether they are more likely to be found on less-healthy foods.Public health nutrition · 2020Pooled it
- Use of programme theory to understand the differential effects of interventions across socio-economic groups in systematic reviews-a systematic methodology review.Systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Are Dutch adults equally susceptible to nudging and pricing strategies? Secondary analyses of the Supreme Nudge parallel cluster-randomised controlled supermarket trial.BMC medicine · 2024Trial
- The Relationship between Diet Costs and Dietary Adequacy: A Scoping Review of Measures and Methods with a Focus on Cost Estimation using Food Supply Data.The Journal of nutrition · 2025Article
- Community priorities for obesity prevention among low-income adults in Kuala Lumpur: a discrete choice experiment.Health promotion international · 2022Article
- Impact of taxes on purchases of close substitute foods: analysis of cross-price elasticities using data from a randomized experiment.Nutrition journal · 2021Article
- Effect of subsidies on healthful consumption: a protocol for a systematic review update.BMJ open · 2020Article
- Using a UK Virtual Supermarket to Examine Purchasing Behavior Across Different Income Groups in the United Kingdom: Development and Feasibility Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFiscal interventions to improve population diet have been recommended for consideration by many organisations including the World Health Organisation and the United Nations and policies such as sugar-sweetened beverage taxes have been implemented at national and sub-national levels. However, concerns have been raised with respect to the differential impact of fiscal interventions on population sub-groups and this remains a barrier to implementation.
objectiveTo examine how personal characteristics (such as socioeconomic status, sex, impulsivity, and income) moderate changes in purchases of targeted foods in response to food and beverage price changes in experimental settings.
designSystematic review. DATA SOURCES: Online databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, EconLit and PsycInfo), reference lists of previous reviews, and additional data from study authors. STUDY SELECTION: We included randomised controlled trials where food and beverage prices were manipulated and reported differential effects of the intervention on participant sub-groups defined according to personal characteristics. DATA ANALYSIS: Where possible, we extracted data to enable the calculation of price elasticities for the target foods by personal characteristic.
results8 studies were included in the review. Across studies, the difference in price elasticity varied from 0.02 to 2.43 between groups within the same study. 11 out of the total of 18 comparisons of own-price elasticity estimates by personal characteristic differed by more than 0.2 between groups. Income related factors were the most commonly considered and there was an indication that own-price elasticity estimates do vary by income but the direction of this effect was not clear.
conclusionExperimental studies provide an opportunity to examine the differential effects of fiscal measures to improve population diets. Patterns in price sensitivity by personal characteristics are complex. General conclusions pertaining to the effects of personal characteristics on price sensitivity are not supported by the evidence, which shows heterogeneity between studies and populations.
trial registrationPROSPERO CRD42014009705.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.