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Purpose. To gather consumer input about approaches to providing energy composition information for foods on fast-food restaurant menus. Design. We asked a subset of individuals (n = 150) in an experimental study about the influence of nutrition labeling on fast-food meal choices to evaluate calorie information on mock fast-food menus in various formats. Setting. Three community sites in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, metropolitan area. Subjects. Adolescents and adults who ate fast food at least once per week were recruited. Measures. Via a series of open- and close-ended questions, participants gave feedback about several formats for providing energy composition information for foods on fast-food restaurant menus. Analysis. Means and frequencies were calculated, and χ2 tests were conducted. Results. When asked to compare a menu that provided calorie information for each menu item with a menu that provided the number of minutes of running that would be required to burn the calories contained in each menu item, 71.0% of participants preferred the calorie information over the physical activity information. Participants also compared two approaches to providing caloric reference information on the menu (average daily calorie needs per day vs. per meal), and 61.3% preferred the calorie needs—per-meal format. Conclusion. Our results may be useful in designing approaches to providing energy composition information for foods on fast-food restaurant menus.

Objective To explore the construct of complicated daily tasks (CDTs) performed by older Chinese people. Study Design Panel review and face-to-face interview. Setting Community of an urban Chinese city. Participants Forty-six women with no major medical events and living independently in the community. Outcome Measures A structured questionnaire containing 21 tasks rated for perceived complexity, importance and frequency. Results A three-factor structure was revealed: “home maintenance”, “outdoor” and “technological”. The 12 core tasks were somewhat different from those revealed in other common clinical instruments. Conclusion Performance of CDTs demands cognitive and physical capabilities, and technological skills of older people. Tasks specific to the Chinese culture were those related to cuisine, use of gadgets, physical environment and life-style.