TY - JOUR
T1 - What counts? Adding nuance to retail food environment measurement tools in a Canadian context
AU - Ferdinands, Alexa Rae
AU - Brown, Jennifer Ann
AU - Nielsen, Charlene C.
AU - Nykiforuk, Candace I.J.
AU - Raine, Kim D.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge Jaskiran Gill for her contributions to food retailer coding, Darcy Reynard for his contributions to previous iterations of the geospatial analysis and Krista Milford for project coordination of Alberta’s Nutrition Report Card on Food Environments for Children and Youth. Financial support: This work was supported by Alberta Innovates Health Solutions Cancer Prevention Research Opportunity [grant number 201500846]. C.I.J.N. received support as an Applied Public Health Chair from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada and Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions [2014–2019; CPP 137909]. Funding bodies were not involved in the design of the study, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or in the writing of the manuscript. Conflict of interest: There are no conflicts of interest. Authorship: A.R.F. contributed to creating the retailer codebook and database, interpreting the findings, and writing the original draft. J.A.B. contributed to creating the retailer codebook and database, GIS analysis, interpreting the findings, and writing the original draft. C.C.N. contributed to GIS analysis and interpreting the findings. K.D.R. and C.I.J.N. contributed to overall study conceptualisation, supervision and funding acquisition. All authors reviewed, edited and approved the final manuscript. Ethics of human subject participation: Not applicable. No human participants, human material or human data were involved in this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nutrition Society.
PY - 2023/7/19
Y1 - 2023/7/19
N2 - Objective: Limitations of traditional geospatial measures, like the modified Retail Food Environment Index (mRFEI), are well documented. In response, we aimed to: (1) extend existing food environment measures by inductively developing subcategories to increase the granularity of healthy v. less healthy food retailers; (2) establish replicable coding processes and procedures; and (3) demonstrate how a food retailer codebook and database can be used in healthy public policy advocacy. Design: We expanded the mRFEI measure such that ‘healthy’ food retailers included grocery stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, wholesalers, bulk food stores, produce outlets, butchers, delis, fish and seafood shops, juice/smoothie bars, and fresh and healthy quick-service retailers; and ‘less healthy’ food retailers included fast-food restaurants, convenience stores, coffee shops, dollar stores, pharmacies, bubble tea restaurants, candy stores, frozen dessert restaurants, bakeries, and food trucks. Based on 2021 government food premise licences, we used geographic information systems software to evaluate spatial accessibility of healthy and less healthy food retailers across census tracts and in proximity to schools, calculating differences between the traditional v. expanded mRFEI. Setting: Calgary and Edmonton, Canada. Participants: N/A. Results: Of the 10 828 food retailers geocoded, 26 % were included using traditional mRFEI measures, while 53 % were included using our expanded categorisation. Changes in mean mRFEI across census tracts were minimal, but the healthfulness of food environments surrounding schools significantly decreased. Conclusions: Overall, we show how our mRFEI adaptation, and transparent reporting on its use, can promote more nuanced and comprehensive food environment assessments to better support local research, policy and practice innovations.
AB - Objective: Limitations of traditional geospatial measures, like the modified Retail Food Environment Index (mRFEI), are well documented. In response, we aimed to: (1) extend existing food environment measures by inductively developing subcategories to increase the granularity of healthy v. less healthy food retailers; (2) establish replicable coding processes and procedures; and (3) demonstrate how a food retailer codebook and database can be used in healthy public policy advocacy. Design: We expanded the mRFEI measure such that ‘healthy’ food retailers included grocery stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, wholesalers, bulk food stores, produce outlets, butchers, delis, fish and seafood shops, juice/smoothie bars, and fresh and healthy quick-service retailers; and ‘less healthy’ food retailers included fast-food restaurants, convenience stores, coffee shops, dollar stores, pharmacies, bubble tea restaurants, candy stores, frozen dessert restaurants, bakeries, and food trucks. Based on 2021 government food premise licences, we used geographic information systems software to evaluate spatial accessibility of healthy and less healthy food retailers across census tracts and in proximity to schools, calculating differences between the traditional v. expanded mRFEI. Setting: Calgary and Edmonton, Canada. Participants: N/A. Results: Of the 10 828 food retailers geocoded, 26 % were included using traditional mRFEI measures, while 53 % were included using our expanded categorisation. Changes in mean mRFEI across census tracts were minimal, but the healthfulness of food environments surrounding schools significantly decreased. Conclusions: Overall, we show how our mRFEI adaptation, and transparent reporting on its use, can promote more nuanced and comprehensive food environment assessments to better support local research, policy and practice innovations.
KW - Canada
KW - Food environment
KW - Food retailer
KW - GIS
KW - Measurement
KW - mRFEI
KW - Nutrition
KW - Public health
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85153972999&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1368980023000733
DO - 10.1017/S1368980023000733
M3 - Journal Article
C2 - 37073692
AN - SCOPUS:85153972999
SN - 1368-9800
VL - 26
SP - 1326
EP - 1337
JO - Public Health Nutrition
JF - Public Health Nutrition
IS - 7
ER -