Mizdrak Anja, Waterlander Wilma Elzeline, Rayner Mike, Scarborough Peter
Burden of Disease Epidemiology, Equity and Cost-Effectiveness Programme (BODE3), Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
National Institute of Health Innovation, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
J Med Internet Res. 2017 Oct 9;19(10):e343. doi: 10.2196/jmir.7982.
The majority of food in the United Kingdom is purchased in supermarkets, and therefore, supermarket interventions provide an opportunity to improve diets. Randomized controlled trials are costly, time-consuming, and difficult to conduct in real stores. Alternative approaches of assessing the impact of supermarket interventions on food purchases are needed, especially with respect to assessing differential impacts on population subgroups.
The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of using the United Kingdom Virtual Supermarket (UKVS), a three-dimensional (3D) computer simulation of a supermarket, to measure food purchasing behavior across income groups.
Participants (primary household shoppers in the United Kingdom with computer access) were asked to conduct two shopping tasks using the UKVS and complete questionnaires on demographics, food purchasing habits, and feedback on the UKVS software. Data on recruitment method and rate, completion of study procedure, purchases, and feedback on usability were collected to inform future trial protocols.
A total of 98 participants were recruited, and 46 (47%) fully completed the study procedure. Low-income participants were less likely to complete the study (P=.02). Most participants found the UKVS easy to use (38/46, 83%) and reported that UKVS purchases resembled their usual purchases (41/46, 89%).
The UKVS is likely to be a useful tool to examine the effects of nutrition interventions using randomized controlled designs. Feedback was positive from participants who completed the study and did not differ by income group. However, retention was low and needs to be addressed in future studies. This study provides purchasing data to establish sample size requirements for full trials using the UKVS.
在英国，大部分食品是在超市购买的，因此，超市干预为改善饮食提供了一个机会。随机对照试验成本高昂、耗时且难以在实际商店中进行。需要采用其他方法来评估超市干预对食品购买的影响，尤其是评估对不同人群亚组的差异影响。
本研究的目的是评估使用英国虚拟超市（UKVS）（一种超市的三维计算机模拟）来测量不同收入群体食品购买行为的可行性。
参与者（英国有电脑的家庭主要购物者）被要求使用UKVS完成两项购物任务，并填写关于人口统计学、食品购买习惯以及对UKVS软件反馈的问卷。收集关于招募方法和比率、研究程序完成情况、购买情况以及可用性反馈的数据，以为未来的试验方案提供参考。
总共招募了98名参与者，其中46名（47%）完全完成了研究程序。低收入参与者完成研究的可能性较小（P = 0.02）。大多数参与者认为UKVS易于使用（38/46，83%），并表示在UKVS上的购买与他们平时的购买相似（41/46，89%）。
UKVS可能是一种有用的工具，可用于采用随机对照设计来研究营养干预的效果。完成研究的参与者反馈积极，且不同收入群体之间无差异。然而，保留率较低，需要在未来研究中加以解决。本研究提供了购买数据，以确定使用UKVS进行全面试验所需的样本量。
