Protocol for a randomized controlled trial to test the acceptability and adherence to 6-months of walnut supplementation in Chinese adults at high risk of cardiovascular disease

Table 1 Timeline for key events and collection of outcome data for the NUTS trial

			Follow up 24 weeks
			Baseline
Week	−2	−1	0	1	2	12	25^a
Months			0			3	6
Pre-intervention screening
Information sheets distribution	╳
Consent for pre-screening	╳	╳
Pre-screening	╳	╳
Baseline
Informed consent			╳
Assessed for eligibility			╳
Demographics			╳
Disease history			╳
Medication use			╳
Food Frequency Questionnaire			╳
Intervention
Randomization				╳
Dispense walnuts (intervention groups)				╳		╳
Dispense non-edible gifts (control group)				╳	╳	╳	╳
Endpoint collection
Blood pressure			╳				╳
Fasting blood			╳				╳
Anthropometric measurements^b			╳				╳
24-h dietary recall			╳				╳
Adherence and acceptability (intervention groups)					╳	╳	╳

^a 25 week or early withdrawal; ^b Weight, height, waist and hip circumference measurements

ISSN: 1475-2891