title: Consumer understanding of calorie labeling: a healthy monday e-mail and text message intervention.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess caloric knowledge of participants and determine if an e-mail and/or text message intervention could increase knowledge of recommended daily caloric intake.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomized, control trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Johns Hopkins Hospital Cobblestone Café.
  
  
  METHODS
  The 246 participants reported eating at the Café at least twice/week.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants randomized to control, e-mail, or text condition. The text and e-mail conditions received a message on four consecutive Mondays stating the recommended daily caloric intake.
  
  
  METHODS
  Knowledge of the government reference value of 2,000 calories.
  
  
  METHODS
  Intention-to-treat analysis was conducted. Multivariate logistic regression examined the effectiveness of text and e-mail messaging for improving knowledge of the government calorie reference value.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Baseline awareness of the daily calorie reference value in study population was low. Participants in the text message condition were twice as likely to know the government calorie reference value compared to controls (p = .047, odds ratio = 2.2, 95% confidence interval [1.01, 4.73]). No significant differences were found for the e-mail condition (p = .5).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many people do not know the daily recommended caloric intake. Public education on the government calorie reference value is necessary for menu-labeling interventions to be more effective. Weekly text messaging can serve as an effective modality for delivering calorie information and nutrition education.
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Michelle L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Abel
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Loglisci
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Righter
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Hipper
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA lcheskin@jhsph.edu.
authors.forename: Lawrence J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Cheskin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D034742:Electronic Mail; D002149:Energy Intake; D005260:Female; D005515:Food Labeling; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017010:Reminder Systems / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012147:Restaurants; D060145:Text Messaging
keywords: behavior change; chronic disease; health education; nutrition; obesity; public health laws/policies