Enabling healthier snack choices in hospital shops and cafes

In 2018/19, the Royal Society of Edinburgh funded Dr Julia Allan from the Aberdeen Health Psychology group to test the effectiveness of ‘point of purchase prompts’ (signs displayed on shop shelves; example pictured below) in prompting consumers to buy healthier snacks in hospital shops. Customers buying snacks in hospital shops displaying the prompts were more likely to choose healthier options.

Fig 1: Point of purchase prompt

point of purchase prompt image - If you are trying to eat less, then choose a snack from the left

To make your own point of purchase prompts, download the free toolkit (PDF 874KB) and template (PPT 5.3MB).