Abstract
Objective
The food environment is increasingly being implicated in the obesity epidemic, though few reported measures of it exist. In order to assess the impact of the food environment on food intake, valid measures must be developed and tested. The current study describes the development of a food service environment assessment tool and its implementation in a community setting.
Methods
A descriptive study with mixed qualitative and quantitative methods at a large, North American university campus was undertaken. Measures were developed on the basis of a conceptual model of nutrition environments. Measures of community nutrition environment were the number, type and hours of operation of each food service outlet on campus. Measures of consumer nutrition environment were food availability, food affordability, food promotion and nutrition information availability. Seventy-five food service outlets within the geographic boundaries were assessed.
Results
Assessment tools could be implemented in a reasonable amount of time and showed good face and content validity. The food environments were described and measures were grouped so that food service outlet types could be compared in terms of purchasing convenience, cost/value, healthy food promotion and health. Food service outlet types that scored higher in purchasing convenience and cost/value tended to score lower in healthy food promotion and health.
Conclusion
This study adds evidence that food service outlet types that are convenient to consumers and supply high value (in terms of calories per dollar) tend to be less health-promoting. Results from this study also suggest the possibility of characterizing the food environment according to the type of food service outlet observed.
Key words: Food environment, food choice, instrument development, built environment
Résumé
Objectif
L’environnement alimentaire est de plus en plus impliqué dans l’épidémie d’obésité, mais il a été peu mesuré. Afin d’évaluer l’incidence de cet environnement sur la consommation d’aliments, il faut créer et éprouver des mesures valides. Nous décrivons ici la création d’un outil d’évaluation de l’environnement des services d’alimentation et sa mise en oeuvre en milieu communautaire.
Méthode
Nous avons mené une étude descriptive combinant des méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives sur un vaste campus universitaire nord-américain. Nos mesures reposaient sur un modèle théorique des environnements alimentaires. Nous en avons défini pour l’environnement de nutrition de la communauté (nombre, type et heures d’ouverture des débits de restauration sur le campus) et pour l’environnement de nutrition du consommateur (disponibilité alimentaire, abordabilité des aliments, promotion des aliments et disponibilité de renseignements nutritionnels). Nous avons évalué 75 débits de restauration dans les limites géographiques de l’étude.
Résultats
Les outils d’évaluation ont pu être mis en oeuvre assez rapidement; leur validité apparente et leur validité de contenu étaient bonnes. Nous avons décrit les environnements alimentaires et regroupé les mesures de manière à pouvoir comparer les types de débits de restauration selon les heures d’ouverture, le prix, la promotion des aliments sains et la santé. Les types de débits de restauration qui ont obtenu les meilleures notes pour les heures d’ouverture et le prix avaient tendance à obtenir de moins bonnes notes au chapitre de la promotion des aliments sains et de la santé.
Conclusion
Cette étude confirme que les types de débits de restauration qui sont pratiques pour le consommateur et qui vendent des produits à fort rapport économique (nombre de calories par dollar) ont tendance à être moins favorables à la santé. L’étude montre aussi qu’il est possible de caractériser l’environnement alimentaire selon le type de débits de restauration qu’on y trouve.
Mots clés: environnement alimentaire, choix alimentaires, élaboration d’instruments, milieu bâti
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