A healthy lifestyle – a healthy diet and regular physical activity – significantly contributes to the prevention of chronic diseases. People with lower socioeconomic position (SEP) often have unhealthier lifestyles compared to those with higher SEP. However, interventions aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle often struggle to reach the lower SEP population and may even exacerbate social inequality. One possible explanation is that these interventions traditionally focus on individual determinants of behavior, such as knowledge, attitudes, and intentions. Moreover, these interventions are often ineffective, partly because they do not consider the social, physical, and political context in which lifestyle choices are made; unhealthy behavior can be seen as an automatic response to the “obesogenic” environment.
Changes in and of the environment in which people live can significantly help promote a healthy lifestyle and reach all target groups. Changes in the environment should ensure that the healthy choice becomes the easy choice, the obvious choice, or even the only choice, especially for hard-to-reach populations, such as people with lower SEP. However, whether environmental interventions are also effective in the long term for improving risk factors for cardiovascular diseases is unknown and needs further investigation.
In Supreme Nudge, an integrated intervention is being developed and studied in supermarkets, where the “supermarket environment” is designed to make healthy food choices easier and more natural. The supermarket is a crucial setting where lifestyle choices are made, and enticing healthier food choices through product placement, price changes, and messages can have direct and long-lasting effects. This is combined with an mHealth intervention that provides individuals with real-time, personalized feedback and advice on how much, where, and when to engage in physical activity and how to increase it. The effects on risk factors for cardiovascular diseases are being examined. This intervention builds upon previous successful interventions to promote healthy eating and sufficient physical activity but combines two innovative approaches: nudging and price changes, with real-time feedback using artificial intelligence and context-specific information and advice on lifestyle behavior.
Supreme Nudge is a 5-year project financed by the Dutch Heart Foundation and ZonMw. It is coordinated by the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam and includes partners from the VU University, University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University Medical Center, Utrecht University, the Dutch Nutrition Center, Nynke van der Laan (ICT developer), Duwtje (creative designers) and supermarket chain Coop.
Research team ACHC:
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- Anne Vos (PhD student)
- Prof. Dr. Edith Smit
- Dr. Gert-Jan de Bruijn
- Dr. Michel Klein
- Dr. Sophie Boerman
Status: Started April 2019, ended January 2023
Funding: Dutch Heart Foundation and ZonMw
Links: https://www.supremenudge.nl/