One-Year Follow-Up Examination of the Impact of the North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program on Healthy Food Availability, Purchases, and Consumption

Jilcott Pitts, Stephanie B.; Wu, Qiang; Truesdale, Kimberly P.; Haynes-Maslow, Lindsey; McGuirt, Jared T.; Ammerman, Alice; Bell, Ronny; Laska, Melissa N.

doi:10.3390/ijerph15122681

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

One-Year Follow-Up Examination of the Impact of the North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program on Healthy Food Availability, Purchases, and Consumption

by

Stephanie B. Jilcott Pitts

^1,*,

Qiang Wu

²,

Kimberly P. Truesdale

³,

Lindsey Haynes-Maslow

⁴,

Jared T. McGuirt

⁵,

Alice Ammerman

³,

Ronny Bell

¹ and

Melissa N. Laska

⁶

¹

Department of Public Health, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27834, USA

²

Department of Biostatistics, College of Allied Health Sciences, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27834, USA

³

Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA

⁴

Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA

⁵

Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412, USA

⁶

Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55454, USA

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(12), 2681; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122681

Submission received: 11 October 2018 / Revised: 17 November 2018 / Accepted: 26 November 2018 / Published: 28 November 2018

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Built Environments, Food Environments, and Public Health)

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Abstract

We examined the short-term impact of the North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program (HFSRP), a legislatively appropriated bill providing funding up to $25,000 to small food retailers for equipment to stock and promote healthier foods, on store-level availability and purchase of healthy foods and beverages, as well as customer dietary patterns, one year post-policy implementation. We evaluated healthy food availability using a validated audit tool, purchases using customer bag-checks, and diet using self-reported questionnaires and skin carotenoid levels, assessed via Veggie Meter™, a non-invasive tool to objectively measure fruit and vegetable consumption. Difference-in-difference analyses were used to examine changes in HFSRP stores versus control stores after 1 year. There were statistically significant improvements in healthy food supply scores (availability), with the Healthy Food Supply HFS score being −0.44 points lower in control stores and 3.13 points higher in HFSRP stores pre/post HFSRP (p = 0.04). However, there were no statistically significant changes in purchases or self-reported consumption or skin carotenoids among customers in HFSRP versus control stores. Additional time or other supports for retailers (e.g., marketing and promotional materials) may be needed for HFSRP implementation to influence purchase and consumption.

Keywords: nutrition policy; food deserts; health disparities; rural populations

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MDPI and ACS Style

Jilcott Pitts, S.B.; Wu, Q.; Truesdale, K.P.; Haynes-Maslow, L.; McGuirt, J.T.; Ammerman, A.; Bell, R.; Laska, M.N. One-Year Follow-Up Examination of the Impact of the North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program on Healthy Food Availability, Purchases, and Consumption. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 2681. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122681

AMA Style

Jilcott Pitts SB, Wu Q, Truesdale KP, Haynes-Maslow L, McGuirt JT, Ammerman A, Bell R, Laska MN. One-Year Follow-Up Examination of the Impact of the North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program on Healthy Food Availability, Purchases, and Consumption. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2018; 15(12):2681. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122681

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jilcott Pitts, Stephanie B., Qiang Wu, Kimberly P. Truesdale, Lindsey Haynes-Maslow, Jared T. McGuirt, Alice Ammerman, Ronny Bell, and Melissa N. Laska. 2018. "One-Year Follow-Up Examination of the Impact of the North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program on Healthy Food Availability, Purchases, and Consumption" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 15, no. 12: 2681. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122681

APA Style

Jilcott Pitts, S. B., Wu, Q., Truesdale, K. P., Haynes-Maslow, L., McGuirt, J. T., Ammerman, A., Bell, R., & Laska, M. N. (2018). One-Year Follow-Up Examination of the Impact of the North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program on Healthy Food Availability, Purchases, and Consumption. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(12), 2681. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122681

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One-Year Follow-Up Examination of the Impact of the North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program on Healthy Food Availability, Purchases, and Consumption

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