Assessing the Relative Impact of Home-Food and Local-Supermarket Environments on Children’s Diets in Low-Resource African American Neighborhoods

This study will take advantage of a unique natural experiment to evaluate the ways in which the home food environment modifies the effects of a new full-service supermarket on children’s diet in a low-resource, urban, African American neighborhood. The study has two specific aims: 1) to determine the effect of the new supermarket on children’s More

Meaningful, Measurable, and Manageable Approaches to Evaluating Healthy Food Financing Initiatives: An Overview of Resources and Approaches

Healthy food financing initiatives are a relatively new approach to improve access to healthy foods, enabling healthy food retailers to locate or renovate food outlets in underserved communities through one-time financing assistance. This paper provides guidance on using meaningful, measurable, and manageable methods to evaluate healthy food financing efforts. The authors outline a number of More

Validity of Secondary Retail Food Outlet Data: A Systematic Review

To characterize retail food environments and identify areas with limited retail access, researchers, government programs, and community advocates have primarily used secondary retail food outlet data sources. This systematic review examines the evidence for validity reported for secondary retail food outlet data sources for characterizing retail food environments. A literature search was conducted through December More

Community-Based Interventions in Prepared-Food Sources: A Systematic Review

Foods purchased from prepared food sources (ready-to-eat foods that can be eaten outside the home or brought back or delivered to the home to eat) are now a major part of the American diet and are linked to increased rates of overweight and chronic disease. Prepared food sources may be an important venue for obesity-prevention More

Impact of the Revised Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Food Package Policy on Fruit and Vegetable Prices

In 2009, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) was modified to align the WIC food packages with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. As part of the revisions, WIC added a fruit and vegetable (F/V) voucher to the food packages. This paper describes a quasi-experimental study that examined whether F/V More

Investigating Nutrition Standards in Seven California Counties to Inform Policy at Local, State, and Federal Levels

Establishing county-level food and beverage standards is a promising strategy for improving nutrition environments. This study will investigate the impact of nutrition standards policies on county facilities that serve foods and beverages to children from lower-income communities of color in California. The specific aims are to: 1) describe the process of developing, implementing, and monitoring More

The Childhood Obesity Epidemic: Lessons Learned from Tobacco

The large increases in the prevalence of cigarette smoking and obesity in the 20th century are associated with changes in tobacco and food products, as well as social and physical environments that support or discourage smoking, unhealthy dietary intake, and sedentary behaviors. This paper focuses on several of the primary factors responsible for the increase More

How Television Fast Food Marketing Aimed at Children Compares with Adult Advertisements

This article compares quick-service restaurant (QSR) television advertisements for children’s meals with adult advertisements from the same company to assess whether companies were complying with their self-regulatory pledges. Researchers coded nationally televised advertisements for visual and audio assessments of branding, toy premiums, movie tie-ins, and depictions of food. They found that almost all of the More