A systematic review of store audit methods for assessing tobacco marketing and products at the point of sale

Abstract

Objective Over four-fifths of reported expenditures for marketing tobacco products occur at the retail point of sale (POS). To date, no systematic review has synthesized the methods used for surveillance of POS marketing. This review sought to describe the audit objectives, methods, and measures used to study retail tobacco environments. Methods We systematically searched 11 academic databases for papers indexed on or before March 14, 2012, identifying 2,906 papers. Two coders independently reviewed each abstract or fulltext to identify papers with the following criteria: (1) data collectors visited and assessed (2) retail environments using (3) a data collection instrument for (4) tobacco products or marketing. We excluded papers where limited measures of products and/or marketing were incidental. Two abstractors independently coded included papers for research aims, locale, methods, measures used, and measurement properties. We calculated descriptive statistics regarding the use of 4 P’s of marketing (product, price, placement, promotion) and for measures of study design, sampling strategy, and sample size. Results We identified 88 store audit studies. Most studies focus on enumerating the number of signs or other promotions. Several strengths, particularly in sampling, are noted, but substantial improvements are indicated in the reporting of reliability, validity, and audit procedures. Conclusions Audits of POS tobacco marketing have made important contributions to understanding industry behaviour, the uses of marketing, and resulting health behaviours. Increased emphasis on standardization and the use of theory are needed in the field. We propose key components of audit methodology that should be routinely reported.

Standardized Tobacco Assessment for Retail Settings (STARS): dissemination and implementation research

“…However, tobacco control research and practice lacks a standardised, widely used measure for retail marketing surveillance. 11 For example, the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey 12 has >150 citations, but the most frequently cited instruments that assess retail tobacco marketing have six or fewer citations. 11 An accessible, standard instrument is needed to make comparisons within and between jurisdictions, and to inform evidence-based policymaking in the USA and in other countries.…”

Crowdsourcing data collection of the retail tobacco environment: case study comparing data from crowdsourced workers to trained data collectors

“…Fourth, we were unable to validate responses for all measures due to cost constraints. This is a general challenge for the field given that validity assessments were only reported in 6% of tobacco retail audit studies 4. Our results suggest that photos may be useful for assessing validity.…”

“…Exposure to point of sale (POS) tobacco marketing influences youth smoking initiation2 and impulse cigarette purchases among adults,3 which undermines quit attempts and increases relapse among recent quitters. Ongoing surveillance of retail tobacco marketing is needed to inform research and regulatory practices 4 5. However, traditional retail audits that employ trained field workers are costly and require substantial lead time for planning and implementation.…”

Setting the agenda for a healthy retail environment: content analysis of US newspaper coverage of tobacco control policies affecting the point of sale, 2007–2014

“…The 1 January 2007 time point was 2.5 years prior to the passage of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (FSPTCA). As has been done previously by Lee et al ,41 in a POS-related systematic review, search terms were structured to capture articles with a tobacco-related word in the headline and a POS-related or retail-related word in the body of the article.…”