Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Rockford, IL 61107, USA.
Department of Behavioral, Social and Health Education Sciences, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 7;19(12):6986. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19126986.
Community engagement is well established as a key to improving public health. Prior food environment research has largely studied community engagement as an intervention component, leaving much unknown about how food retailers may already engage in this work. The purpose of this study was to explore the community engagement activities employed by neighborhood food retailers located in lower-income communities with explicit health missions to understand the ways stores involve and work with their communities. A multiple case study methodology was utilized among seven retailers in urban U.S. settings, which collected multiple sources of data at each retailer, including in-depth interviews, store manager sales reports, store observations using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Stores, public documents, and websites. Across-case analysis was performed following Stake's multiple case study approach. Results indicated that retailers employed a wide variety of forms of community engagement within their communities, including Outreach, Building Relationships through Customer Relations, Giving Back, Partnering with Community Coalitions, and Promoting Community Representation and Inclusiveness. Strategies that built relationships through customer relations were most common across stores; whereas few stores demonstrated community inclusiveness where members participated in store decision making. Findings provide a more comprehensive view of the ways local food retailers aim to develop and sustain authentic community relationships. Additional research is needed to evaluate the impact of community engagement activities on improving community health.
社区参与作为改善公共卫生的关键措施已得到广泛认可。先前的食品环境研究主要将社区参与作为干预措施的组成部分进行研究，对于食品零售商如何已经参与这项工作，我们知之甚少。本研究旨在探索位于低收入社区且具有明确健康使命的邻里食品零售商所采用的社区参与活动，以了解商店如何与社区建立联系并开展合作。本研究在美国城市环境中采用了多案例研究方法，在每家零售商处收集了多种来源的数据，包括深入访谈、店长销售报告、使用商店营养环境测量工具进行的商店观察、公共文件和网站。采用 Stake 的多案例研究方法进行跨案例分析。结果表明，零售商在其社区内采用了多种形式的社区参与，包括外展活动、通过客户关系建立关系、回馈社会、与社区联盟合作以及促进社区代表性和包容性。通过客户关系建立关系的策略在各个商店中最为常见；而很少有商店表现出社区包容性，即成员参与商店决策制定。研究结果提供了对当地食品零售商旨在发展和维持真实社区关系的方式的更全面了解。需要进一步研究评估社区参与活动对改善社区健康的影响。
