Formative Evaluation for a Healthy Corner Store Initiative in Pitt County, North Carolina: Assessing the Rural Food Environment, Part 1

Abstract

IntroductionObesity prevalence in the rural United States is higher than in urban or suburban areas, perhaps as a result of the food environment. Because rural residents live farther from supermarkets than their urban- and suburban-dwelling counterparts, they may be more reliant on smaller corner stores that offer fewer healthful food items.MethodsAs part of a Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) healthy corner store initiative, we reviewed audit tools in the fall of 2010 to measure the consumer food environment in eastern North Carolina and chose the NEMS-S-Rev (Nutrition Environment Measures Survey-Stores-Revised) to assess 42 food stores. During the spring and summer of 2011, 2 trained graduate assistants audited stores, achieving interrater reliability of at least 80%. NEMS-S-Rev scores of stores in rural versus urban areas were compared.ResultsOverall, healthful foods were less available and of lower quality in rural areas than in urban areas. NEMS-S-Rev scores indicated that healthful foods were more likely to be available and had similar pricing and quality in rural corner stores than in urban corner stores.ConclusionFood store audit data provided a baseline to implement and evaluate a CPPW healthy corner store initiative in Pitt County. This work serves as a case study, providing lessons learned for engaging community partners when conducting rural food store audits.

Food and beverage purchases in corner stores, gas-marts, pharmacies and dollar stores

“…As has been observed in previous studies with corner stores (6,8–11) , these stores attract loyal customers who are drawn there for convenience and make purchases daily or multiple times a week. As in previous corner store studies (6,7,9,10,38) , food and beverage purchases at small and non-traditional retailers are usually limited to a few dollars, for which a few low-nutrient, energy-dense products tend to be purchased.…”

Assessment of a University Campus Food Environment, California, 2015

“…The NEMS is a widely used instrument with demonstrated inter-rater and test–retest reliability ( 20 , 21 ). It has been used in various settings as a basis for improving food environments and access to healthful food choices, and in research to describe differences in nutrition environments across socioeconomically disparate neighborhoods ( 22 – 25 ). Detailed information on NEMS standard procedures for data collection and scoring, as well as information on its development, reliability, and applications in research and practice, are published ( 20 , 21 ) or available online ( 26 ).…”

Exploring mechanisms of food insecurity in indigenous agricultural communities in Guatemala: a mixed methods study

“…They vary in both size and formality, ranging from small wooden stalls with irregular schedules and only a few items available for purchase to well-stocked one-room stores with regular operating hours. The structured survey was inspired by other instruments in the published literature that are used to measure nutritional environments, especially the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in Stores [20][21][22]. In designing the final survey, we constructed an initial food item list in consultation with nutrition staff members from the partner non-governmental organization (NGO).…”