Trial reportHealth promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice2015
A randomized trial testing the efficacy of modifications to the nutrition facts table on comprehension and use of nutrition information by adolescents and young adults in Canada.
Trial report in Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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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
6 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trends in Self-Reported Responses to Nutrition Facts Labels Before and After Nutrition Labeling Policy Implementation: A Comparison of Adults in the United States and Mexico.Current developments in nutrition · 2026Article
- Awareness, use and understanding of nutrition labels among children and youth from six countries: findings from the 2019 - 2020 International Food Policy Study.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2023Article
- Experimental study of front-of-package nutrition labels' efficacy on perceived healthfulness of sugar-sweetened beverages among youth in six countries.Preventive medicine reports · 2021Article
- Integrating a Health Literacy Lens into Nutrition Labelling Policy in Canada.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Labeling Nutrition-Sensitive Food Chains: A Consumer Preference Analysis of Milk Products.Frontiers in nutrition · 2020Article
- Understanding and use of food labeling systems among Whites and Latinos in the United States and among Mexicans: Results from the International Food Policy Study, 2017.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionGiven the proposed changes to nutrition labelling in Canada and the dearth of research examining comprehension and use of nutrition facts tables (NFts) by adolescents and young adults, our objective was to experimentally test the efficacy of modifications to NFts on young Canadians' ability to interpret, compare and mathematically manipulate nutrition information in NFts on prepackaged food.
methodsAn online survey was conducted among 2010 Canadians aged 16 to 24 years drawn from a consumer sample. Participants were randomized to view two NFts according to one of six experimental conditions, using a between-groups 2 x 3 factorial design: serving size (current NFt vs. standardized serving-sizes across similar products) x percent daily value (% DV) (current NFt vs. "low/med/high" descriptors vs. colour coding). The survey included seven performance tasks requiring participants to interpret, compare and mathematically manipulate nutrition information on NFts. Separate modified Poisson regression models were conducted for each of the three outcomes.
resultsThe ability to compare two similar products was significantly enhanced in NFt conditions that included standardized serving-sizes (p ≤ .001 for all). Adding descriptors or colour coding of % DV next to calories and nutrients on NFts significantly improved participants' ability to correctly interpret % DV information (p ≤ .001 for all). Providing both standardized serving-sizes and descriptors of % DV had a modest effect on participants' ability to mathematically manipulate nutrition information to calculate the nutrient content of multiple servings of a product (relative ratio = 1.19; 95% confidence limit: 1.04-1.37).
conclusionStandardizing serving-sizes and adding interpretive % DV information on NFts improved young Canadians' comprehension and use of nutrition information. Some caution should be exercised in generalizing these findings to all Canadian youth due to the sampling issues associated with the study population. Further research is needed to replicate this study in a more heterogeneous sample in Canada and across a range of food products and categories.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.