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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2018 Feb 16;17(1):24.
doi: 10.1186/s12937-018-0334-1.

Does additional support provided through e-mail or SMS in a Web-based Social Marketing program improve children's food consumption? A Randomized Controlled Trial

Natalie Rangelov  1 , Sara Della Bella  2 , Pedro Marques-Vidal  3 , L Suzanne Suggs  2   4
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Does additional support provided through e-mail or SMS in a Web-based Social Marketing program improve children's food consumption? A Randomized Controlled Trial

Natalie Rangelov et al. Nutr J. .

Abstract

Background: The FAN Social Marketing program was developed to improve dietary and physical activity habits of families with children in Ticino, Switzerland. The aim of this study was to examine if the effects of the program on children's food intake differed by intervention group.

Methods: Effects of the FAN program were tested through a Randomized Controlled Trial. The program lasted 8 weeks, during which participants received tailored communication about nutrition and physical activity. Families were randomly allocated to one of three groups, where the parent received the intervention by the Web (G1), Web + e-mail (G2) or Web + SMS (G3). Children in all groups received tailored print letters by post. Children's food consumption was assessed at baseline and immediate post intervention using a 7-day food diary. Generalized linear mixed models with child as a random effect and with time, treatment group, and the time by treatment interaction as fixed effects were used to test the impact of the intervention.

Results: Analyses were conducted with a sample of 608 children. After participating in FAN the marginal means of daily consumption of fruit changed from 0.95 to 1.12 in G1, from 0.82 to 0.94 in G2, and from 0.93 to 1.18 in G3. The margins of the daily consumption of sweets decreased in each group (1.67 to 1.56 in G1, 1.71 to 1.49 in G2, and 1.72 to 1.62 in G3). The change in vegetable consumption observed from pre to post intervention in G3 (from 1.13 to 1.21) was significantly different from that observed in G1 (from 1.21 to 1.17).

Conclusions: A well-designed Web-based Social Marketing intervention complemented with print letters can help improve children's consumption of water, fruit, soft drinks, and sweets. The use of SMS to support greater behavior change, in addition to Web-based communication, resulted only in a small significant positive change for vegetables, while the use of e-mail in addition to Web did not result in any significant difference.

Trial registration: The trial was retrospectively registered in the ISRCTN registry (ID ISRCTN48730279 ).

Keywords: Children; E-health; E-mail; Eating behavior; Intervention; Nutrition; RCT; SMS; Social marketing; Web.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Study procedures were reviewed by the Canton Ticino Ethics Committee and voted “exempt” from human research ethics approval in accordance with Swiss law. According to the recommendations of the Helsinki Declaration, all participants, both children and parents, provided informed consent and voluntarily provided their data.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
CONSORT Flow Diagram
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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