Foods and Beverages Available to Nurses in Hospital Cafeterias, Vending Machines, and Gift Shops

Hospitals are important workplaces for nurses with many perceived barriers to healthy eating, but objective assessments are lacking. This study evaluated the healthfulness of hospital consumer food environments.

Cross-sectional observational; Setting: South Carolina; Subjects: Cafeterias, vending machines (VM), and gift shops (GS) in hospitals of varying size, urbanization, and region.

Using the Hospital Nutrition Environment Scan (HNES), primary outcomes of interest included availability, access, prices, and location of healthy foods in relation to nursing units.

Descriptive and inferential statistics by independent samples t-test, ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U, χ2, or Fisher's exact test as appropriate.

Thirty-one hospitals were observed from December 2019 to February 2020. Average composite HNES score (n = 28) was 46.3 ± 14.9 (-45 to 173 range), indicating sub-optimal food environments. Cafeterias (n = 31) scored an average of 30.9 ± 10.5 (-33 to 86 range). Average VM (n = 31) and GS (n = 28) scores were 11.6 ± 6.0 (-6 to 55 range) and 2.9 ± 4.0 (-6 to 32 range), respectively. Small hospitals (≤100 beds) had lower average cafeteria score (22.4 ± 10.3) than extra-large hospitals (≥500 beds; 42 ± 5.2, P < .01). Small hospitals also had lower composite HNES scores (34.4 ± 17.1) compared to extra-large hospitals (61.0 ± 14.4, P = .02). Data regarding availability, access, prices, and location were also reported.

Due to abundant availability of unhealthy foods and beverages, hospital consumer food environments scored low on observations using the HNES, highlighting the opportunity to improve the healthfulness of facility offerings.