A list of all retail food stores and their postcodes in six council boundaries (Southampton, Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport, Havant, Portsmouth) within Hampshire, UK, was compiled in July and August 2010. Store information was obtained from council Food Safety Registers and on-line business directories (yellow-pages and yell.com). Between July 2010 and June 2011 trained fieldworkers ‘ground-truthed’ the study area and collected data in 601 of the 606 retail food stores.
A consumer nutrition environment tool was designed to measure nine factors that can affect consumer’s food choices. Data on number of varieties, price, promotion, shelf placement and store placement were collected on seven healthy and five less healthy products. In addition, information on the type of nutrition information and availability of a healthier alternative were collected for less healthy products. The quality of two fruits and four vegetables and opportunity for single sale of the two fruits were also measured. Table
1 describes the definitions and measurement scales of the variables included in the tool. Information on fruit and vegetable quality was collected using a published quality indicator
[18 (link)]. Data on the remaining variables were collected using novel measures. The tool and survey protocol are available in the Additional file
1 . The median time taken to complete the survey across the 601 stores was 11 minutes (IQR: 7, 15).
The 12 food products were: peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, apples, bananas, wholemeal bread, oven chips, sausages, crisps, sugar and white bread. Products were selected because they discriminate between better or poorer dietary patterns, are frequently consumed in England
[27 ] and could be measured in a large survey. The food products selected represent items from short and long food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) used to determine differences in dietary quality among a number of populations including young women, young children and older adults
[28 (link)-31 (link)]. These foods represent the UK Department of Health’s dietary recommendations and foods known to contribute to nutrition-related chronic diseases
[29 (link)].
The level of agreement between fieldworkers was assessed by the Kappa statistic on a sample of 14 stores (large supermarket (n = 2), discount supermarket (n = 1), small supermarket (n = 4), ‘world’ store (n = 1), convenience store (n = 5), petrol store (n = 1)). The relative consistency of price responses was assessed using the coefficient of variation: the standard deviation of difference divided by the mean (%). Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the internal consistency of all nine components of the healthfulness score.
A consumer nutrition environment tool was designed to measure nine factors that can affect consumer’s food choices. Data on number of varieties, price, promotion, shelf placement and store placement were collected on seven healthy and five less healthy products. In addition, information on the type of nutrition information and availability of a healthier alternative were collected for less healthy products. The quality of two fruits and four vegetables and opportunity for single sale of the two fruits were also measured. Table
[18 (link)]. Data on the remaining variables were collected using novel measures. The tool and survey protocol are available in the Additional file
The 12 food products were: peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, apples, bananas, wholemeal bread, oven chips, sausages, crisps, sugar and white bread. Products were selected because they discriminate between better or poorer dietary patterns, are frequently consumed in England
[27 ] and could be measured in a large survey. The food products selected represent items from short and long food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) used to determine differences in dietary quality among a number of populations including young women, young children and older adults
[28 (link)-31 (link)]. These foods represent the UK Department of Health’s dietary recommendations and foods known to contribute to nutrition-related chronic diseases
[29 (link)].
The level of agreement between fieldworkers was assessed by the Kappa statistic on a sample of 14 stores (large supermarket (n = 2), discount supermarket (n = 1), small supermarket (n = 4), ‘world’ store (n = 1), convenience store (n = 5), petrol store (n = 1)). The relative consistency of price responses was assessed using the coefficient of variation: the standard deviation of difference divided by the mean (%). Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the internal consistency of all nine components of the healthfulness score.
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