Socioeconomic position and the effect of price interventions on healthier and less healthy food on food selection in a simulated food delivery app: a randomised controlled trial.

Witkam, R, Brealey, J, Tzavella, L, Finlay, A, Jones, A ORCID: 0000-0001-5951-889X and Robinson, E (2026) Socioeconomic position and the effect of price interventions on healthier and less healthy food on food selection in a simulated food delivery app: a randomised controlled trial. Public Health Nutrition, 29 (1). pp. 1-26. ISSN 1368-9800

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Abstract

Objective:
We examined the effects of price interventions on the healthiness of a hypothetical food order in a simulated online out-of-home food delivery app.

Design:
The design was a randomised controlled trial, with four conditions (10 % taxation of less healthy menu items; 10 % subsidy of healthier menu items; a combination of taxation and subsidy; standard pricing), and recruitment was stratified by socioeconomic position (SEP). Primary outcomes were healthier v. less healthy main meal selected and total kilocalories (kcals) selected.

Setting:
Participants selected a hypothetical evening meal from out-of-home food outlets on a simulated online food delivery app.

Participants:
N 3106 adult participants from the UK were randomised into taxation (n 750), subsidies (n 808), a combination of taxation and subsidies (n 769), and standard pricing (n 779). 57–58 % of participants were iof higher SEP.

Results:
There were no statistically significant effects of the pricing interventions on whether a healthy v. less healthy main meal was selected (e.g. taxation v. control OR 0·91 (95 % CI 0·74, 1·12); subsidies v. control OR 1·08 (95 % CI 0·89, 1·31)) or on total kcals selected (e.g. taxation v. control regression coefficient −44·31 (95 % CI −95·90, 7·28); subsidies v. control regression coefficient −7·94 (95 % CI −60·23, 44·35)). There was no evidence that effects differed by SEP.

Conclusions:
We found no convincing evidence that 10 % changes in price of healthy and less healthy food in a simulated out-of-home food delivery app significantly impacted on healthiness of food selected. Further research may benefit from examining effects of larger price changes and in real-world purchasing conditions.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	32 Biomedical and Clinical Sciences; 4206 Public Health; 42 Health Sciences; 3210 Nutrition and Dietetics; Clinical Trials and Supportive Activities; Clinical Research; Health Disparities; Prevention; Health Disparities and Racial or Ethnic Minority Health Research; 3.1 Primary prevention interventions to modify behaviours or promote wellbeing; Cardiovascular; Cancer; Stroke; Oral and gastrointestinal; 11 Medical and Health Sciences; Nutrition & Dietetics; 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences; 42 Health sciences
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology T Technology > TX Home economics > TX341 Nutrition. Foods and food supply
Divisions:	Psychology (from Sep 2019)
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Date of acceptance:	16 July 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	23 September 2026
Date Deposited:	23 Sep 2026 14:40
Last Modified:	23 Sep 2026 14:40
DOI or ID number:	10.1017/s1368980026103334
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29520

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