Energy Support

Clinical trials for fatigue-fighting natural products

The human body perpetually uses energy to accomplish physiological processes ranging from basic cell growth and repair to exercise to mental labor. Energy levels determine our physical, mental, emotional, and overall health and wellbeing.

Fatigue, or feeling constantly tired, exhausted, and weak, is a mental and physical state in which the capacity for achieving routine tasks is diminished. Up to half of individuals in the general population suffer from fatigue on a regular basis, and energy-focused supplements and products are among the fastest-growing in the natural products industry.

You know your product boosts energy, but to stand out in today's market, consumers want proof. A clinical trial with Nutraceuticals Research Institute can deliver the evidence you need to energize the world.

ENDPOINTS FOR FATIGUE-FIGHTING STUDIES

Chronic low levels of energy are often difficult to assess clinically. How do you demonstrate that you've boosted energy when there is no direct laboratory test you can use for confirmation?

The NRI Energy Scale (NRI-ES) was developed specifically to capture improvements to energy levels through the use of natural products. This comprehensive psychometric scale is capable of capturing improvements to energy levels on a wide range of domains, including mental energy, emotional energy, and even overall motivation.

A natural products fatigue trial at Nutraceuticals Research Institute will typically focus on 5 - 6 primary endpoints. Each product has unique needs, so your trial's specific endpoints will be determined through collaboration between your marketing goals and our research team, ensuring that they match your product's greatest effects. Our most commonly used endpoints include:

Physical

Physical energy refers to the most basic form of energy–the ability to complete physical tasks.

Mental

Cognitive processes require energy and burn calories, just like physical activity. Mental energy captures the ability to engage in cognitive work.

Emotional

Emotional energy captures the degree to which individuals have the capacity to regulate their emotions and engage in emotional labor.

Motivation

Energizing effects also require an increase in motivation–the desire to act. This subscale captures these improvements.

Perception

The subjective perception of energy levels captures the participant's satisfaction with the changes caused by the intervention.

General

General or nonspecific energy captures a holistic or all-encompassing type of fatigue that affects all aspects of healthy functioning.

Beautiful and athletic Girl jumping with a balloon on the beach

Motivated happy sporty woman wearing sports bra, sneakers enjoying excercise, training outdoors near sea, workout quay, jogging, running, jumping energized, smiling during productive fitness session.

ENERGIZING CLINICAL TRIALS

Chronically low energy levels play a critical role in overall quality of life and a comprehensive definition of health.

Working with Nutraceuticals Research Institute for a high quality clinical trial with a fatigue-reducing outcome is a worthwhile investment as these studies have the potential to substantiate claims such as:

anti-fatigue
increases energy and alertness
elevates energy levels
boosts focus and mental energy
diminishes the effects of fatigue caused by overwork

Energy can be selected as a primary, secondary, or tertiary endpoint for a nutraceutical study. It serves as a fantastic addition to studies targeting stress, cognition, or sleep; it can also be enhanced by adding outcomes such as mood.

Questions about Energy Support Trials

Is your energy scale validated?

We love talking about our proprietary suite of psychometric measurement instruments!

These tools were developed to far exceed recommendations in the FDA's guidance on the use of Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) for the substantiation of labeling claims. The scale contains a combination of subjective and objective data which are aggregated to produce total scores on each of the fatigue-related subdomains.

Each of our measures are validated and norm-referenced in a population of healthy adult females. Our development priorities include elimination of floor or ceiling effects in this priority population as well as ensuring that each domain has highly precise sensitivity to change.

Our energy scale was developed and pilot tested with focus groups and qualitative research to ensure face and content validity. They were then tested for psychometric properties using confirmatory factor analysis and item response. Internal reliability was determined via Cronbach's alpha.

Our energy subscales have Cronbach's alpha scores ranging from .82 to .90, which is an ideal range for both exceeding minimum standards for internal reliability while avoiding redundancy and participant burden.

Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that each subscale measures a single latent factor, with each subscale contributing to the broad latent factor of energy levels. Factor loadings were all below 0.5, SRMRs were below 0.8, and coefficient of determinations were above 0.8.

In item response theory testing using graded response modeling, each item in the final version of the scale was found to be highly discriminating with IRT discrimination (trait) parameters all above 1.5 and over 50% of item trait parameters above 2.0. Difficulty parameters and test information curves identified that the test is most reliable within +/- 1.5 standard deviations of the mean.

Practically speaking, this means that the test is calibrated to identify fatigue symptoms among an average American female adult population and is capable of identifying changes that go both above and below the norm. This ensures that our measures capture the totality of your product's effects on each specific type of energy.

How long does an energizing trial take?

We create each and every trial around your product's key benefits. The intervention period is going to be the driving factor in the trial's total duration.

As a general rule, plan on 6-8 weeks from contract execution to the first participant's start date. This time is for protocol development and obtention of ethical authorizations/registrations. This is the most important timeframe of the entire study as it lays the groundwork for a trial that meets our high standards of quality and is capable of staying on the target timeline.

Following the first participant's start date, we typically recommend adding 2 months to the total intervention period for us to hand-select each participant in your study among our nationwide community of participants. This means that a 1-week intervention would require approximately 9 weeks for this phase, whereas a 3-month intervention would require approximately 5 months.

After all data are collected, our team audits each dataset to ensure accuracy. We then clean the data, construct the outcome variables from the data collected, and begin statistical analysis. This phase takes 4-6 weeks on average. More complex studies with multiple outcomes can take several months.

Once outcomes are confirmed, we immediately provide you a quick review of the findings. Our team then spends another 2-4 weeks creating a long-form technical report that goes into precise details of the entire study, a submission-ready scientific manuscript for publication of the findings, and a full color lookbook which contains the technical report contents as well as attention catching graphs and charts. This ensures that everyone on your team, from legal to scientific to marketing, has access to the findings in the form that best meets their needs.

How does the use of a custom protocol affect our budget?

We design custom trial strategies around the needs of your energizing products Our expert approach to clinical trial design focuses on the quality of your trial and FDA/FTC natural product-specific guidelines such as those for dietary supplements or cosmetics. We prioritize ethics compliance, data protection, and quality control over wasteful and irrelevant systems borrowed from other industries.

Through this approach, we're able to reduce inefficiencies in the research process and eliminate needless overhead costs that are not relevant to the standards for health-enhancing products.

Not only does this approach substantially reduce the cost of a clinical trial for your energizing product, it also improves the quality of the trial. It's a win-win.

So what does this actually look like for your trial? At Franklin, we prioritize transparent pricing. Each and every trial is a bespoke design based on your energizing product's unique needs, with your budget and goals in mind. With our extensive expertise in natural products and clinical research, we're often able to come up with creative solutions to work with any trial budget.

The typical randomized, double-blinded placebo-controlled clinical trial for an energizing product varies based on a number of factors. On the lower end, a trial may run anywhere from $45,000-$75,000 for a week-long aromatherapy based energizing study with 60 people. On the upper end, a 3-4 month intervention with larger groups and more complex analyses can run into the mid-$100,000 range. Our scientists will work with you to develop a trial that captures the real world effects of your product while staying within the confines of your budget.

YOU KNOW YOUR PRODUCT SUPPORTS HEART HEALTH; WE'LL HELP YOU PROVE IT.

Schedule a free, no-obligation meeting with a scientist today to learn more about how Nutraceuticals Research Institute can help your product become "clinically proven."

Meet with a Scientist