Trial Information

The HMO Cancer Research Network (CRN) - Making Effective Nutritional Choices for Cancer Prevention: The MENU Study

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

- Compare the effects of internet-based nutrition education through untailored websites
vs tailored websites (TW) vs TW and tailored human online behavioral interaction (HOBI)
on the change in the number of daily fruit and vegetable servings consumed in
participants of health maintenance organizations.

Secondary

- Compare the proportion of participants reporting consumption of 5 or more servings of
fruits and vegetables per day at each 3-month interval.

- Compare the change in fruit and vegetable servings consumed from baseline to each
intermediate time point.

- Compare the effects of intervention and observation time in these participants.

- Determine the effect of HOBI in these participants.

- Compare the impact of participant characteristics, in terms of the effect of the
intervention on the change in fruit and vegetable intake, in these participants.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, controlled, single-blind, multicenter study. Participants are
stratified according to participating site, gender, and the participant's stage of change
readiness. Participants are randomized to 1 of 3 intervention arms.

- Arm I (untailored websites): Participants are given unlimited access to an
internet-based nutrition education program for up to 6 months. They are provided with 4
serial educational websites at 1, 3, 13, and 15 weeks after initial login. These
internet sites provide general information about fruits and vegetables, new recipes
with emphasis on fruits and vegetables, and how participants can incorporate them into
their diet. Participants complete an online survey at 3 months.

- Arm II (tailored websites): Participants are given unlimited access to an
internet-based nutrition education program for up to 6 months. They are provided with 4
serial educational websites, at the same timepoints as in arm I, with emphasis on
vegetable consumption in weeks 1 and 13 and fruit consumption in weeks 3 and 15.
Materials in these websites, including new recipes with emphasis on fruits and
vegetables, are tailored and then revised (or retailored) based on individual
health-risk information obtained at baseline and at the 3-month online survey.

- Arm III (tailored websites and human online behavioral interaction [HOBI]):
Participants are given unlimited access to an internet-based nutrition education
program for up to 6 months. Participants are provided with 4 serial educational
websites with tailored materials as in arm II. They also receive HOBI (tailored e-mail
messages) developed and then revised based on health-risk information obtained at
baseline and the 3-month online survey.

In all arms, participants complete online surveys at 3, 6, and 12 months to measure fruit
and vegetable intake and change in long-term risk behavior. For each survey, participants
receive up to 6 automatically generated reminder e-mails and 1 mailed announcement.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 2,619 participants were accrued for this study.