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Availability of and Ease of Access to Calorie Information on Restaurant Websites

OBJECTIVE: Offering calories on restaurant websites might be particularly important for consumer meal planning, but the availability of and ease of accessing this information are unknown. METHODS: We assessed websites for the top 100 U.S. chain restaurants to determine the availability of and ease o...

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Autores principales: Bennett, Gary G., Steinberg, Dori M., Lanpher, Michele G., Askew, Sandy, Lane, Ilana B., Levine, Erica L., Goodman, Melody S., Foley, Perry B.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3747846/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23977193
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0072009
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author Bennett, Gary G.
Steinberg, Dori M.
Lanpher, Michele G.
Askew, Sandy
Lane, Ilana B.
Levine, Erica L.
Goodman, Melody S.
Foley, Perry B.
author_facet Bennett, Gary G.
Steinberg, Dori M.
Lanpher, Michele G.
Askew, Sandy
Lane, Ilana B.
Levine, Erica L.
Goodman, Melody S.
Foley, Perry B.
author_sort Bennett, Gary G.
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Offering calories on restaurant websites might be particularly important for consumer meal planning, but the availability of and ease of accessing this information are unknown. METHODS: We assessed websites for the top 100 U.S. chain restaurants to determine the availability of and ease of access to calorie information as well as website design characteristics. We also examined potential predictors of calorie availability and ease of access. RESULTS: Eighty-two percent of restaurants provided calorie information on their websites; 25% presented calories on a mobile-formatted website. On average, calories could be accessed in 2.35±0.99 clicks. About half of sites (51.2%) linked to calorie information via the homepage. Fewer than half had a separate section identifying healthful options (46.3%), or utilized interactive meal planning tools (35.4%). Quick service/fast casual, larger restaurants, and those with less expensive entrées and lower revenue were more likely to make calorie information available. There were no predictors of ease of access. CONCLUSION: Calorie information is both available and largely accessible on the websites of America’s leading restaurants. It is unclear whether consumer behavior is affected by the variability in the presentation of calorie information.
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spelling pubmed-37478462013-08-23 Availability of and Ease of Access to Calorie Information on Restaurant Websites Bennett, Gary G. Steinberg, Dori M. Lanpher, Michele G. Askew, Sandy Lane, Ilana B. Levine, Erica L. Goodman, Melody S. Foley, Perry B. PLoS One Research Article OBJECTIVE: Offering calories on restaurant websites might be particularly important for consumer meal planning, but the availability of and ease of accessing this information are unknown. METHODS: We assessed websites for the top 100 U.S. chain restaurants to determine the availability of and ease of access to calorie information as well as website design characteristics. We also examined potential predictors of calorie availability and ease of access. RESULTS: Eighty-two percent of restaurants provided calorie information on their websites; 25% presented calories on a mobile-formatted website. On average, calories could be accessed in 2.35±0.99 clicks. About half of sites (51.2%) linked to calorie information via the homepage. Fewer than half had a separate section identifying healthful options (46.3%), or utilized interactive meal planning tools (35.4%). Quick service/fast casual, larger restaurants, and those with less expensive entrées and lower revenue were more likely to make calorie information available. There were no predictors of ease of access. CONCLUSION: Calorie information is both available and largely accessible on the websites of America’s leading restaurants. It is unclear whether consumer behavior is affected by the variability in the presentation of calorie information. Public Library of Science 2013-08-20 /pmc/articles/PMC3747846/ /pubmed/23977193 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0072009 Text en © 2013 Bennett et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bennett, Gary G.
Steinberg, Dori M.
Lanpher, Michele G.
Askew, Sandy
Lane, Ilana B.
Levine, Erica L.
Goodman, Melody S.
Foley, Perry B.
Availability of and Ease of Access to Calorie Information on Restaurant Websites
title Availability of and Ease of Access to Calorie Information on Restaurant Websites
title_full Availability of and Ease of Access to Calorie Information on Restaurant Websites
title_fullStr Availability of and Ease of Access to Calorie Information on Restaurant Websites
title_full_unstemmed Availability of and Ease of Access to Calorie Information on Restaurant Websites
title_short Availability of and Ease of Access to Calorie Information on Restaurant Websites
title_sort availability of and ease of access to calorie information on restaurant websites
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3747846/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23977193
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0072009
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