National support for a healthy checkout policy: a randomised message-framing experiment

Healthy checkout policies set nutritional standards for store checkouts and have been implemented in three US jurisdictions. We compared four message frames, each describing a different rationale for the policy, on adults' support for a healthy checkout policy.

Participants were randomised to one of four message frames: (1) expanding healthy choices; (2) reducing parental stress by removing unhealthy items from child eye level; (3) improving community and child health; or (4) addressing predatory marketing. We used Poisson regression with robust standard errors to examine policy support by message frame and explore variation in support by socio-demographic characteristics.

Online randomised experiment.

A convenience sample of US adults (analytic N 3978) recruited online via quota-matching to approximate national socio-demographic characteristics.

Overall, most participants (65 %) supported a healthy checkout policy. Support was moderately higher (68 %) when the policy was framed as reducing parental stress than addressing predatory marketing (64 %) or expanding healthy choices (61 %; all p < 0·05). Policy support was also higher when framed as improving community and child health (67 %) than expanding healthy choices (61 %; p < 0·01). In adjusted models, overall policy support was higher among adults with Hispanic ethnicity (68 %); incomes >$35 000 (range 66-70 %); a prediabetes or type 2 diabetes diagnosis (67 %); at least some college education (67 %) and residence in the Northeast US (70 %; all p < 0·05).

Support for a healthy checkout policy was high, especially when framed around benefits to child health. Adults with certain socio-demographic and clinical characteristics may especially support healthy checkout policies.