Effects of Restaurant Menu Design on Food Ordering Outcomes

University of Alabama at Birmingham61 enrolled

Overview

High cognitive load activities can influence energy intake from food. It is unknown how restaurant menu designs may affect patrons in terms of cognitive demand and subsequent ordering of food.Objective: Our objective was to develop and experimentally test menu designs that differ in cognitive load to test the subjective and objective stress measures on food ordering.

For the first experiment, a parallel randomized trial of healthy young adults (n= 30) was conducted to compare ordering from one of two menu designs (easy - E, hard - H) developed in a prior pilot study. In the second experiment, restrained eaters were specifically recruited and asked to fast before the experiment to determine the influence of cognitive load of menus on energy ordered (n=31). Galvanic skin response was used as an objective proxy for relative cognitive load, and questionnaires were used to assess perceptions of the menus. The main outcomes were the number of items ordered and total energy of the items ordered (in kilocalories).

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Food Preferences

Interventions

Menu designBEHAVIORAL

Participants were given 5 minutes to order a hypothetical meal from the assigned test menu by circling all items they wanted to order.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 19 YearsMax age: 35 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Experiment 1 Inclusion Criteria: * Normal vision or corrective lenses * Normal hearing or a hearing aid * A moderate level of English proficiency or greater * Free from current food restrictions Exclusion Criteria: * Unwilling/uninterested in participation * Currently taking any β-blocker medications * Any serious skin conditions on the hands (because of galvanic skin sensors worn for the protocol) Experiment 2 Inclusion Criteria: * Normal vision or corrective lenses * Normal hearing or a hearing aid * A moderate level of English proficiency or greater * Free from current food restrictions * Qualifying as a restrained eater by the Cognitive Restraint scale on the Eating Inventory (score of 6 for men and 10 for women) Exclusion Criteria: * Unwilling/uninterested in participation * Currently taking any β-blocker medications * Any serious skin conditions on the hands (because of galvanic skin sensors worn for the protocol)

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Total Number of Items Ordered

Total number of items ordered off assigned menu

Time frame: During the 5-minute menu ordering task

Total Energy of Items ordered

Total Energy (kcals) of items ordered off assigned menu

Time frame: During the 5-minute menu ordering task

Secondary Outcomes

Subjective ratings of difficulty of using assigned menu to order a meal

Assessed by NASA Task Load Index questionnaire

Time frame: Immediately (1 minute) following the 5-minute menu ordering period

Galvanic Skin Response

An objective proxy for relative cognitive load; this measure has been shown to be positively correlated with psychological stress or cognitive challenge as mediated by sympathetic nervous system activity

Time frame: During the 5-minute menu ordering task

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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