title: Using a computational model to quantify the potential impact of changing the placement of healthy beverages in stores as an intervention to "Nudge" adolescent behavior choice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Product placement influences consumer choices in retail stores. While sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) manufacturers expend considerable effort and resources to determine how product placement may increase SSB purchases, the information is proprietary and not available to the public health and research community. This study aims to quantify the effect of non-SSB product placement in corner stores on adolescent beverage purchasing behavior. Corner stores are small privately owned retail stores that are important beverage providers in low-income neighborhoods--where adolescents have higher rates of obesity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using data from a community-based survey in Baltimore and parameters from the marketing literature, we developed a decision-analytic model to simulate and quantify how placement of healthy beverage (placement in beverage cooler closest to entrance, distance from back of the store, and vertical placement within each cooler) affects the probability of adolescents purchasing non-SSBs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In our simulation, non-SSB purchases were 2.8 times higher when placed in the "optimal location"--on the second or third shelves of the front cooler--compared to the worst location on the bottom shelf of the cooler farthest from the entrance. Based on our model results and survey data, we project that moving non-SSBs from the worst to the optional location would result in approximately 5.2 million more non-SSBs purchased by Baltimore adolescents annually.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study is the first to quantify the potential impact of changing placement of beverages in corner stores. Our findings suggest that this could be a low-cost, yet impactful strategy to nudge this population--highly susceptible to obesity--towards healthier beverage decisions.
authors.affiliation: Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) and Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. Mwong23@jhu.edu.|Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. Mwong23@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Michelle S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) and Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. Cnau1@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nau
authors.affiliation: Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) and Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. Akharma1@jhu.edu.|Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. Akharma1@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Anna Yevgenyevna
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Kharmats
authors.affiliation: Health and Society Institute, Baixada Santista Campus, Federal University of Sao Paulo, 136 Silva Jardim Street, Santos, SP, 11015-020, Brazil. Gabriela.vedovato@uifesp.br.
authors.forename: Gabriela Milhassi
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Vedovato
authors.affiliation: Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) and Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. cheskin@jhu.edu.|Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 550 N. Broadway,Suite 1001, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. cheskin@jhu.edu.|Department of Health, Behavior & Society, Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. cheskin@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Lawrence J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Cheskin
authors.affiliation: Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) and Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. jgittel1@jhu.edu.|Department of International Health, Center for Human Nutrition, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. jgittel1@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gittelsohn
authors.affiliation: Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) and Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. brucelee@jhu.edu.|Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. brucelee@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Bruce Y
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D001628:Beverages / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D054626:Consumer Health Information; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008389:Marketing of Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013549:Sweetening Agents / Q000009:adverse effects*
chemical_list: D013549:Sweetening Agents