# Developing and Evaluating Health and Environmental Messages to Improve Diet in Emerging Adults

> **NIH NIH K01** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $78,011

## Abstract

PROJECT ABSTRACT
Unhealthy diet and obesity are major causes of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Emerging adults (ages 18-25)
are a crucial group to target with CVD prevention interventions because they have lower dietary quality and
experience more rapid weight gain than adults in middle and older adulthood. Moreover, emerging adulthood is
distinct developmental period during which lifelong eating behaviors and CVD risk trajectories are largely
established. Communication interventions, particularly those appealing to emerging adults’ strong interest in
both environmental sustainability and personal health, are a promising but understudied strategy for
addressing unhealthy diet in this age group. The goal of the proposed research is to design and rigorously
evaluate a communication intervention to reduce dietary risk factors for CVD among emerging adults. The first
aim is to identify specific dietary substitutions that emerging adults can readily make to reduce their CVD risk
and dietary environmental harms. To identify these substitutions, I will analyze dietary intake data from the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys linked to a comprehensive database of foods’ greenhouse
gas emissions. The second aim is to develop and optimize health and environmental messages about these
dietary substitutions. I will develop candidate messages, pre-test them in qualitative focus groups, then use a
randomized factorial experiment with 800 emerging adults to identify the most effective message strategies.
The third aim is to evaluate the impact of the messaging interventions on healthfulness of food purchases. In a
longitudinal randomized controlled trial, I will assign 500 emerging adults to 1 of 4 conditions: control (no
messages), health, environmental, or health + environmental messages. Participants will simulate five weekly
shopping trips in an online grocery store with their assigned messages prominently displayed. I will evaluate
each messaging interventions’ initial, sustained, and overall impacts on purchase healthfulness and identify the
most effective type of message. This research will further NHLBI’s strategic goal of preventing CVD and NIH
Nutrition Research Objective 2-6 to leverage behavioral science to initiate and sustain healthy eating. Further,
this award will help me achieve my long-term career goal of becoming an independent investigator focused on
effective, scalable CVD prevention interventions for emerging adults. With support from this K01, I will build on
my expertise in nutrition policy to fill critical training gaps in: 1) the CVD and environmental impacts of food, 2)
communication interventions for emerging adults, 3) mixed methods, and 4) advanced analytic techniques for
longitudinal studies. My detailed training plan includes tutorials with my interdisciplinary mentorship team at the
Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, formal coursework, hands-on research activities, and participation
in conferences, workshops, a...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10749818
- **Project number:** 7K01HL158608-02
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Anna H Grummon
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $78,011
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2022-05-16 → 2027-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10749818

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10749818, Developing and Evaluating Health and Environmental Messages to Improve Diet in Emerging Adults (7K01HL158608-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10749818. Licensed CC0.

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