1) To assess whether Front-of-Pack (FOP) nutrition labels garner attention more readily than more complete, mandated nutrition information (the Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP), required in the US), and 2) To determine whether label design characteristics, specifically, color coding and/or coding with facial icons, increase attention to the FOP label. In two experiments, we tracked the allocation of attention while participants (n=125) viewed novel and commercial packages with varied FOP designs using a change detection methodology. We found empirical evidence that FOP labels are attended more often, and earlier, than the currently mandated NFP, and that this benefit is due both to its placement on the front of the package and to the design characteristics of the FOP. Specifically, the use of color in FOPs increased attention to the label, but there was no evidence that coding information via facial icons impacted attention. Our work supports a growing body of evidence supporting the use of FOP labels to attract attention to nutritional information. Findings may be relevant to inform policy decisions on labeling standards.

Research on the ways older people use prescription medications (Rx) is a mainstay of the gerontological literature because use of Rx medications is common, and appropriate use is central to effective management of chronic disease. But older adults are also major consumers of over-the-counter (OTC) medications, which can be equally significant for self-care. Nearly half of older adults aged 75–85, for example, are regular users of an OTC product. Ensuring that consumers safely and effectively use OTC products is critical in order to minimize potential drug–drug interactions and unintentional misuse. Yet we know surprisingly little about the ways older adults select OTC medications and decide when to start or stop use, how older people actually take these medications, or how involved clinicians and family members are in older adult OTC behavior. Research in this area is critical for developing interventions to help ensure safe and appropriate OTC use. For this reason, The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), in partnership with the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), convened a summit of experts to set an agenda for research in OTC behaviors among older adults. The panel suggested a need for research in 5 key areas: Health literacy and OTC behavior, decision making and OTC use, the role of clinicians in OTC medication behavior, older adult OTC behavior and family care, and technologies to promote optimal use of OTC medications.

Front of pack (FOP) nutrition labels are concise labels located on the front of food packages that provide truncated nutrition information. These labels are rapidly gaining prominence worldwide, presumably because they attract attention and their simplified formats enable rapid comparisons of nutritional value. Eye tracking was conducted as US consumers interacted with actual packages with and without FOP labels to (1) assess if the presence of an FOP label increases attention to nutrition information when viewers are not specifically tasked with nutrition-related goals; and (2) study the effect of FOP presence on consumer use of more comprehensive, traditional nutrition information presented in the Nutritional Facts Panel (NFP), a mandatory label for most packaged foods in the US. Our results indicate that colored FOP labels enhanced the probability that any nutrition information was attended, and resulted in faster detection and longer viewing of nutrition information. However, for cereal packages, these benefits were at the expense of attention to the more comprehensive NFP. Our results are consistent with a potential short cut effect of FOP labels, such that if an FOP was present, participants spent less time attending the more comprehensive NFP. For crackers, FOP labels increased time spent attending to nutrition information, but we found no evidence that their presence reduced the time spent on the nutrition information in the NFP. The finding that FOP labels increased attention to overall nutrition information by people who did not have an explicit nutritional goal suggests that these labels may have an advantage in conveying nutrition information to a wide segment of the population. However, for some food types this benefit may come with a short-cut effect; that is, decreased attention to more comprehensive nutrition information. These results have implications for policy and warrant further research into the mechanisms by which FOP labels impact use of nutrition information by consumers for different foods.

OBJECTIVE. We sought to analyze the interrater reliability of occupational therapy students using standard hand-strength instruments. METHOD. Seventy-three healthy students, faculty, and staff members from a midwestern university participated in this study. Each participant completed three trials for both grip and pinch strength bilaterally. Two student raters independently scored each trial. RESULTS. The interrater reliability of the grip and pinch strength trials was determined using an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) one-way random effects model (1,1). The ICC for the Jamar dynamometer ranged from .996 to .998 ( p < .05). The ICC of the pinch gauge ranged from .949 to .990 ( p < .05). CONCLUSION. This study demonstrated that occupational therapy students can be reliable raters after being trained and tested for competency. To improve psychometric properties for instruments commonly used in the profession, students can participate in collecting normative data for hand-held dynamometry.

The term affordance describes an object's utilitarian function or actionable possibilities. Product designers have taken great interest in the concept of affordances because of the bridge they provide relating to design, the interpretation of design and, ultimately, functionality in the hands of consumers. These concepts have been widely studied and applied in the field of psychology but have had limited formal application to packaging design and evaluation. We believe that the concepts related to affordances will reveal novel opportunities for packaging innovation. To catalyse this, presented work had the following objectives: (a) to propose a method by which packaging designers can purposefully consider affordances during the design process; (b) to explain this method in the context of a packaging-related case study; and (c) to measure the effect on package usability when an affordance-based design approach is employed. © 2014 The Authors. Packaging Technology and Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Adverse drug events (ADEs) are a significant problem in health care. While effective warnings have the potential to reduce the prevalence of ADEs, little is known about how patients access and use prescription labeling. We investigated the effectiveness of prescription warning labels (PWLs, small, colorful stickers applied at the pharmacy) in conveying warning information to two groups of patients (young adults and those 50+). We evaluated the early stages of information processing by tracking eye movements while participants interacted with prescription vials that had PWLs affixed to them. We later tested participants’ recognition memory for the PWLs. During viewing, participants often failed to attend to the PWLs; this effect was more pronounced for older than younger participants. Older participants also performed worse on the subsequent memory test. However, when memory performance was conditionalized on whether or not the participant had fixated the PWL, these age-related differences in memory were no longer significant, suggesting that the difference in memory performance between groups was attributable to differences in attention rather than differences in memory encoding or recall. This is important because older adults are recognized to be at greater risk for ADEs. These data provide a compelling case that understanding consumers’ attentive behavior is crucial to developing an effective labeling standard for prescription drugs.