Centre for Health Promotion Studies, School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB.
Can J Public Health. 2009 Nov-Dec;100(6):421-5. doi: 10.1007/BF03404337.
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.
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.
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.
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.
食品环境越来越被认为是肥胖流行的原因之一，尽管很少有报道对其进行衡量。为了评估食品环境对食物摄入的影响，必须开发和测试有效的衡量工具。本研究描述了一种食品服务环境评估工具的开发及其在社区环境中的实施。
在一个大型的北美大学校园里进行了一项描述性研究，采用混合定性和定量方法。测量方法是基于营养环境的概念模型制定的。社区营养环境的测量指标是校园内每个食品服务网点的数量、类型和营业时间。消费者营养环境的测量指标是食物的可得性、可负担性、促销和营养信息的可得性。在校园的地理范围内评估了 75 个食品服务网点。
评估工具可以在合理的时间内实施，并具有良好的表面和内容效度。描述了食品环境，并对措施进行了分组，以便可以根据购买便利性、成本/价值、健康食品促销和健康状况对食品服务网点类型进行比较。购买便利性和成本/价值得分较高的食品服务网点类型在健康食品促销和健康方面的得分往往较低。
本研究进一步证明，方便消费者且提供高价值（按每美元卡路里计算）的食品服务网点类型往往不太有利于健康。本研究的结果还表明，根据观察到的食品服务网点类型来描述食品环境是可能的。
