Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T02:54:46.823Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Sales data of a supermarket – a tool for monitoring nutrition interventions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 1998

Maria Närhinen*
Affiliation:
Department of Community Health and General Practice, University of Kuopio, Finland
Aulikka Nissinen
Affiliation:
Department of Community Health and General Practice, University of Kuopio, Finland
Pekka Puska
Affiliation:
Depertment of Epidemiolgy and Health Promotion, National Public Health Institute, Finland
*
*Corresponding author: Fax: +358 152011799
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Objective:

The aim of the study was to examine the daily variations in sales data for individual food items in a supermarket and to assess the usefulness of the computerized sales data of supermarkets for reliable monitoring and evaluation of shopping behaviour.

Design:

Longitudinal observational study.

Setting:

The study was carried out in one supermarket in Mikkeli, Finland. Seventy-nine packed food items from food groups important for salt and fat intake were monitored. In all food groups both ‘healthier’ and ‘reference’ products were included for assessment of both direct sales and proportional sales. The sales data were collected daily for 2 months in May and September 1996 by reading the European Article Numbering (EAN) codes of the packed foods.

Results:

The proportional sales turned out to be a more stable and useful measure than the direct sales data and the variation remained the same when the monitoring time was increased from 1 week to 1 month.

Conclusion:

Proportional sales data are proposed as a tool for measuring the effect of nutrition interventions and also as a possible indirect assessment for population salt and fat intake.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © CABI Publishing 1998

References

1Salomaa, V, et al. Decline of coronary heart disease mortality in Finland during 1983 to 1992: roles of incidence, recurrence and case-fatality. The FINMONICA MI Register study. Circulation 1996; 94: 3130–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2Glanz, K, Mullis, R. Environmental interventions to promote healthy eating. A review of models, programs, and evidence. Health Educ. Q. 1988; 15: 395415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3Glanz, K, Lankenau, B, Foerster, STemple, S, Mullis, R, Schmid, T. Environmental and policy approaches to cardiovascular disease prevention through nutrition: opportunities for state and local action. Health Educ. Q. 1995; 22: 512–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4Cheadle, A, Psaty, B, Cuny, S, et al. Community-level comparisons between the grocery store environment and individual dietary practices. Prev. Med. 1991; 20: 250–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5Cheadle, A, Wagner, E, Koepsel, T. Environmental indicators: a tool for evaluating community-based health-promotion programs. Am. J. Prev. Med. 1992; 8: 345–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6Cheadle, A, Pasty, B, Curry, S, et al. Can measures of the grocery store environment be used to track community-level dietary changes? Prev. Med. 1993; 22: 361–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7Närhinen, M.Nissinen, A.Penttilä, PL, Simonen, O, Cernerud, L. Salt and fat content of foods in supermarkets – a study of assortments prices and labelling in Finnish supermarkets. Submitted to Agricultural and Food Science in Finland.Google Scholar
8Mayer, JA, Dubbert, P, Elder, J. Promoting nutrition at the point of choice: a review. Health Educ. Q. 1989; 16: 3143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9Den-Hond, EM, Lesaffre, EE, Kestletoot, HE. Regional differences in consumption of 103 fat products in Belgium: a supermarket chain sales approach. J. Am. Coll. Nutr. 1995; 14: 621–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10Patterson, BH, Kessler, LG, Wax, Y, et al. Evaluation of a supermarket intervention – the NCI-Giant Food Eat for Health study. Eval. Rev. 1992; 16: 464–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11Nyberg, T. EAN-information for induty. University of Helsinki, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, EKT829/90, Helsinki 1990.Google Scholar
12Helakorpi, S, Uutela, A, Prättälä, R, Puska, P. Health Behaviour among Finnish Adult Population. National Public Health Institute B12/1996, Helsinki, 1996.Google Scholar