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Evaluating community-based nutrition programs: comparing grocery store and individual-level survey measures of
A Cheadle1, B M Psaty, P Diehr
1Department of Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle 98195, USA.
Preventive Medicine
|January 1, 1995
Summary
Grocery store surveys offer a cost-effective alternative to telephone surveys for evaluating nutrition programs. They show similar results for tracking dietary changes, supporting their use as environmental indicators.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Nutrition Science
- Health Promotion Evaluation
Background:
- Evaluating community nutrition programs often relies on individual-level telephone surveys.
- These traditional methods can be costly and time-consuming.
- Alternative evaluation tools are needed to assess program effectiveness efficiently.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the viability of using grocery store product display surveys as an "environmental indicator."
- To compare the effectiveness of grocery store surveys against traditional telephone surveys for evaluating dietary interventions.
- To determine if environmental indicators can serve as a realistic alternative for nutrition program evaluation.
Main Methods:
- A comparative study evaluated three community-level dietary interventions using both telephone surveys and grocery store measures.
- Grocery store surveys tracked product availability (low-fat, high-fiber) and health information.
- Telephone surveys collected self-reported dietary intake data from residents across intervention and control communities between 1988 and 1992.
Main Results:
- In one community, both survey methods showed similar positive changes in low-fat milk consumption, aligning with reduced fat intake.
- Another community showed no significant change or a slight worsening in dietary habits across both survey types.
- The third community yielded mixed results, with telephone surveys indicating no improvement while grocery store data suggested positive, albeit non-significant, trends.
Conclusions:
- Grocery store surveys demonstrate potential as a cost-effective environmental indicator for nutrition program evaluation.
- The comparable results in some cases suggest environmental indicators can realistically assess dietary changes.
- Further research into environmental indicators is warranted due to their promising cost-benefit ratio and potential for program assessment.