Improving retrospective characterization of the food environment for a large region in the United States during a historic time period

• Published in: Health & place Vol. 18; no. 6; pp. 1341 - 1347
• Main Authors: Auchincloss, Amy H., Moore, Kari A.B., Moore, Latetia V., Diez Roux, Ana V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-11-2012
• Subjects: Census; Classification; Databases, Factual; Diet; Environment; Food; Food resources; Food Supply - statistics & numerical data; Geography; Health technology assessment; Healthy food; Humans; Identification; Local communities; Obesity; Population Density; Poverty Areas; Prevalence; Public health; Regional analysis; Reliability; Residence characteristics; Residence Characteristics - statistics & numerical data; Retrospective Studies; Supermarkets; U.S.A; United States; Validity; United States; USA; Geography; Validity; Environment; Residence characteristics; Reliability; Food
• ISSN: 1353-8292; 1873-2054
• DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.06.016

Access to healthy foods has received increasing attention due to growing prevalence of obesity and diet-related health conditions yet there are major obstacles in characterizing the local food environment. This study developed a method to retrospectively characterize supermarkets for a single historic year, 2005, in 19 counties in 6 states in the USA using a supermarket chain-name list and two business databases. Data preparation, merging, overlaps, added-value amongst various approaches and differences by census tract area-level socio-demographic characteristics are described. Agreement between two food store databases was modest: 63%. Only 55% of the final list of supermarkets were identified by a single business database and selection criteria that included industry classification codes and sales revenue ≥$2 million. The added-value of using a supermarket chain-name list and second business database was identification of an additional 14% and 30% of supermarkets, respectively. These methods are particularly useful to retrospectively characterize access to supermarkets during a historic period and when field observations are not feasible and business databases are used.
► Methods identify supermarkets in a single historic year over a large area of the USA. ► Agreement between two food store databases was modest: 63%. ► 55% Of the final list of supermarkets were identified by a single business database.