Measuring the Food Environment: A Systematic Technique for Characterizing Food Stores Using Display Counts
Table 1
Mean number of separate displays, by food group and store type, New Orleans, 2007-2008.
Supermarket
Midsized
Small store
Conven1
Drug store
Genl merch2
Food group
()
()
()
()
()
()
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
All fruits and vegetables3
20.1a
9.9
9.1b
6.5
5.8c
3.9
2.7d
2.6
3.1d
2.7
5.1cd
4.4
āFresh fruits and vegetables
12.8
6.8
3.8
2.7
2.4
2.1
0.9
1.3
0.1
0.5
1.1
3.2
āFresh fruits
6.1
2.2
2.0
1.8
1.2
1.1
0.5
0.8
0.1
0.5
0.5
1.4
āFresh vegetables
6.6
4.9
1.8
1.0
1.2
1.2
0.4
0.8
0.0
0.0
0.6
1.8
āCan/froz fruits and vegetables
7.4
3.9
5.4
4.2
3.4
2.3
1.8
1.6
2.9
2.4
4.0
2.6
āCanned fruits
2.5
1.8
2.4
2.5
1.4
1.0
0.8
0.8
1.9
2.0
2.0
0.8
āCanned vegetables
3.5
2.5
2.1
1.7
1.7
1.3
0.9
0.8
1.0
0.6
2.0
2.3
āFrozen vegetables
1.4
0.5
0.9
0.4
0.4
0.6
0.1
0.3
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
All energy-dense snack foods3
79.8a
51.3
21.8bc
5.7
17.3c
6.1
16.8c
7.3
24.5b
10.7
29.3b
12.2
āCandy
18.3
13.0
5.4
2.6
3.1
1.6
2.9
1.6
8.8
5.1
9.3
3.5
āSalty snack foods
22.9
14.1
6.5
3.3
4.3
2.2
4.4
2.6
5.4
2.9
7.4
4.7
āCookies and crackers
14.4
11.0
3.3
2.1
3.2
1.5
2.9
1.7
4.4
2.4
5.0
1.9
āDoughnuts and pastries
12.5
8.8
2.8
1.5
2.4
1.4
2.7
1.6
1.8
1.4
3.0
1.6
āCarbonated beverages
11.8
8.1
3.9
1.7
4.3
2.0
3.9
2.0
4.2
1.6
4.6
2.4
1, 2āConvenā refers to convenience stores, and āGenl merchā refers to general merchandise stores. 3Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to study the difference by store type in the total number of displays of fruits and vegetables. The overall ANOVA was significant (). The LSD test was used post hoc to test the difference between pairs of stores. Store types sharing a common superscript (e.g., convenience, drug, and general merchandise stores) were not significantly different from each other on number of displays of this food group. A separate ANOVA was done and found to be significant () for differences in energy-dense snack foods by store type. Within each store type, paired sample t-tests showed significantly () more energy-dense snack displays than fruit and vegetable displays.
