One way to increase choice of healthy over unhealthy behaviors is to increase the cost of less healthy alternatives or reduce the cost of healthier alternatives. The influence of price on purchases of healthy and unhealthy foods was evaluated in two laboratory experiments. In Experiment 1, thirty-two 10- to 12-year-old youth were given $5.00 and allowed to purchase multiple portions of a healthy food (fruit or vegetable) and a less healthy food (higher-fat snack). The price of one type of food varied from $0.50 to $2.50, while the price of the other type was held at $1.00. Increasing the price of a type of food reduced purchases of that type of food, but did not lead to substitution with the alternative type of food. In Experiment 2, twenty 10- to 14-year-old youth were given $1.00, $3.00, and $5.00 to purchase healthy and unhealthy foods. The price of each food was raised and lowered by 25% and 50%. Raising the price of healthy or unhealthy foods resulted in decreased purchases of those foods, and income available interacted with price to predict the pattern of substitution of alternative foods. These results show the potential for controlled laboratory studies of price and food purchases, and show that the substitution of healthier for unhealthy food is related to available money.
The choice to be physically active or sedentary depends in part on the value of the alternatives that are available. The shift from sedentary to active alternatives may be a function of the value of the sedentary alternatives. To evaluate the influence of the value of the sedentary alternatives on the choice to be physically active or sedentary, 30 nonobese 8-12-year-old youth were randomized in groups that provided a choice between 4 active alternatives or 4 sedentary alternatives (Group 1), their least valued sedentary activity (Group 2), or their most valued sedentary activity (Group 3), on computerized and questionnaire versions of a behavioral choice task. The computer task required participants to work for access to the alternatives. The work required to obtain access to the active alternatives remained constant for all choices, while the work required to gain access to the sedentary alternatives progressively increased. Compared to Groups 1 and 3, participants in Group 2 chose to be sedentary less often as they had to make a choice between being physically active or sedentary on the computerized (p < .005) and the questionnaire version (p < .05) of the behavioral choice task, which correlated r = .54, p < .01. These results suggest interventions designed to increase physical activity by reducing access to sedentary behaviors may need to consider the value of the targeted sedentary behavior and the extent to which the sedentary behaviors compete with physical activity.
The average volume of the human knee in this study was between 65 and 110 mL (±1 standard deviation of mean of 87.5 mL). Although patients with chronic knee pain may have pain from multiple sources, some may have diminished knee volume, and selected arthroscopic releases can restore knee volume to near-normal levels.
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