Abstract
Vending machines are a ubiquitous part of our food environments. Unfortunately, items
found in vending machines tend to be processed foods and beverages high in salt, sugar,
and/or fat. The purpose of this review is to describe intervention and case studies
designed to promote healthier vending purchases by consumers and identify which manipulations
are most effective. All studies analyzed were intervention or case studies that manipulated
vending machines and analyzed sales or revenue data. This literature review is limited
to studies conducted in the United States within the past 2 decades (ie, 1994 to 2015),
regardless of study population or setting. Ten articles met these criteria based on
a search conducted using PubMed. Study manipulations included price changes, increase
in healthier items, changes to the advertisements wrapped around vending machines,
and promotional signs such as a stoplight system to indicate healthfulness of items
and to remind consumers to make healthy choices. Overall, seven studies had manipulations
that resulted in statistically significant positive changes in purchasing behavior.
Two studies used manipulations that did not influence consumer behavior, and one study
was equivocal. Although there was no intervention pattern that ensured changes in
purchasing, price reductions were most effective overall. Revenue from vending sales
did not change substantially regardless of intervention, which will be important to
foster initiation and sustainability of healthier vending. Future research should
identify price changes that would balance healthier choices and revenue as well as
better marketing to promote purchase of healthier items.
Keywords
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Biography
S. V. Hua is lab manager, The Psychology of Eating and Consumer Health Lab, Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA; at the time of the study, she was a degree candidate for a Master in Public Health, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT.
Biography
J. R. Ickovics is the Samuel and Liselotte Herman Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, and professor, Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 18, 2016
Accepted:
June 24,
2016
Received:
December 3,
2015
Footnotes
STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
FUNDING/SUPPORT There is no funding to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
