Using social media to assess the consumer nutrition environment: comparing Yelp reviews with a direct observation audit instrument for grocery stores

Abstract

ObjectiveTo examine the feasibility of using social media to assess the consumer nutrition environment by comparing sentiment expressed in Yelp reviews with information obtained from a direct observation audit instrument for grocery stores.DesignTrained raters used the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in Stores (NEMS-S) in 100 grocery stores from July 2015 to March 2016. Yelp reviews were available for sixty-nine of these stores and were retrieved in February 2017 using the Yelp Application Program Interface. A sentiment analysis was conducted to quantify the perceptions of the consumer nutrition environment in the review text. Pearson correlation coefficients (ρ) were used to compare NEMS-S scores with Yelp review text on food availability, quality, price and shopping experience.SettingDetroit, Michigan, USA.ParticipantsNone.ResultsYelp reviews contained more comments about food availability and the overall shopping experience than food price and food quality. Negative sentiment about food prices in Yelp review text and the number of dollar signs on Yelp were positively correlated with observed food prices in stores (ρ=0·413 and 0·462, respectively). Stores with greater food availability were rated as more expensive on Yelp. Other aspects of the food store environment (e.g. overall quality and shopping experience) were captured only in Yelp.ConclusionsWhile Yelp cannot replace in-person audits for collecting detailed information on the availability, quality and cost of specific food items, Yelp holds promise as a cost-effective means to gather information on the overall cost, quality and experience of food stores, which may be relevant for nutrition outcomes.

Assessing the Cost of Healthy and Unhealthy Diets: A Systematic Review of Methods

“…This instrument was used mostly in the USA (n = 11) [11,33,36,44,47,48,54,57,68,71,107]. Studies were conducted in both rural (n = 4) [10,11,56,106] and urban (n = 11) [33,36,44,47,48,54,57,68,71,107,108] contexts. Compared to the food basket methodology, the NEMS-S instrument compares products in the same category that are considered 'healthy' or 'unhealthy' based on American Dietetic Association (ADA) recommended dietary guidelines, focusing on availability, price, and quality.…”

“…All studies using the NEMS-S instrument collected food price data in physical instore locations. While the instrument itself does not include a calculation of relative affordability, approximately half the NEMS-S studies included this step in their methods [33,36,44,47,48,54,57], while all others did not [10,11,56,68,71,[106][107][108].…”

“…The studies included in this review had a multitude of aims (Tables 2, 3, and 4). While most studies were conducted solely to monitor food prices in a specific location/s [33,39,42,46,47,52,54,56,57,59,64,67,71,75,80,81,88,89,104,106,108,109,114], others aimed to monitor food price changes over time [53,63,74,83,93,97,111,127], assess food prices as a function of income, socioeconomic status, or welfare assistance [9, 19, 20, 33, 36-38, 40, 41, 66, 69, 70, 77, 84-86, 90-92, 94, 100, 110, 115-117, 122]; assess food price in relation to geographic distance [19,77,91,92,94,98]; compare perceptions of food price with actual food prices [68,101,107]; and relate food price with a health outcome [34,35,37,…”

“…Rural - -Compare perceptions with actual food prices [68,107] -Identify intervention strategies/ policies to improve public health [10,11] -Compare food prices between countries [71] -Understand impact of pricing strategies on consumption behaviours [44] -Correlate food price with obesity [47] -Measure impact of opening a store in a food desert on food prices [48] USA -11 Canada -3 Australia - [125] prices of a pre-defined list of foods, often in quantities representative of the total diet of reference families over a defined timeframe [9], and is a longstanding methodology used to investigate the availability and affordability of food. with four of these studies supplementing the data with online supermarket prices [62][63][64]81].…”

YouTube Video Comments on Healthy Eating: Descriptive and Predictive Analysis

“…Moreover, another study found that the food price is higher for healthy food than any other food in grocery stores. These grocery stores appear to have more positive reviews regarding the availability of quality healthy food [ 12 ]. Parenting styles and one’s peers are regarded as the social determinants of healthy eating.…”