Nutrition Labelling Education Program in Socioeconomically Vulnerable Areas
Impact of a Brief Front-of-pack Nutrition Labelling Education Program on Self-efficacy, Food Literacy and Purchase Intentions in Socioeconomically Vulnerable Areas
University of Paris 13
400 participants
Jan 1, 2026
INTERVENTIONAL
Conditions
Summary
Front-of-pack nutrition labels (FoPLs) have been adopted in many countries to help consumers rapidly assess the nutritional quality of foods and to encourage healthier choices. Among these schemes, interpretive systems such as Nutri-Score appear particularly promising, as their graphic design improves understanding and use compared with more complex or purely numerical formats. In France, where social inequalities in diet-related chronic diseases are pronounced, implementing and effectively using FoPLs is especially challenging in socioeconomically vulnerable areas. Seine-Saint-Denis, a department with a markedly higher prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases than the national average, offers a relevant setting to test prevention strategies embedded within routine care. The PEANUTS project is a quasi-experimental before-after interventional study conducted in primary care and hospital outpatient settings, with later extension to the social sector. It aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief, literacy-sensitive nutrition education program focused on on-pack nutrition information (Nutri-Score, nutrition facts panel, claims and marketing elements) on self-efficacy, food literacy and the nutritional quality of purchase intentions among adults living in vulnerable territories.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria2
- Respondents must be aged 18
- No formal income criterion is applied; Participants are considered as low-income (justified by the fact that the study is conducted in an area known to be socioeconomically vulnerable).
Exclusion Criteria4
- Subjects who are homeless
- Subjects who depend exclusively on food aid (Subjects never engaging in grocery shopping)
- Subjects living outside of mainland France
- French language comprehension will be assessed at baseline using functional health literacy questions in the inclusion questionnaire. Insufficient French literacy will not be used as an exclusion criterion at enrolment. Nevertheless, if analyses show that participants who do not speak and read French have outcome scores that are substantially and systematically lower than those of the rest of the sample, these participants may be excluded from planned sensitivity analyses to preserve data quality and comparability.
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Interventions
At the beginning of each session, facilitators perform a brief educational assessment to select the most appropriate level for the group, allowing flexible adaptation of content to heterogeneous literacy levels. Sessions systematically include two components: (1) an active discussion phase to convey key information, followed by (2) a practical "learning by doing" phase designed to foster autonomy in using nutrition labelling tools. Phase 1 (≈12 months) will take place in municipal primary care centers in Seine-Saint-Denis, and delivered by advanced practice nurses and dietitians (≥10 expected). During this phase, qualitative feedback (e.g. spontaneously raised questions, strategies used to manage group heterogeneity) will be collected to inform the training of non-expert facilitators. Phase 2 will extend implementation to social services and community-based organizations, where trained social workers and volunteers will deliver the same modular program, supporting capacity-building in
Locations(1)
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NCT07531849